Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless explosives have become matted together over the decades. They create a decaying blanket on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Some of us anticipated to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. It was a remarkable experience, he says.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes amid the munitions, developing a regenerated ecosystem richer than the sea floor nearby.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in places that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one accessible chunk of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the old munitions. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every meter squared of the munitions, scientists wrote in their paper on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are intended to kill everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, restoring some of the lost habitat. This research demonstrates that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Thousands of workers transported them in boats; a portion were dropped in allocated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time scientists have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of marine species that are typically rare or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the recent history, adjacent waters are usually strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are inadequately recorded, in part because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the reality that records are stored in historical records. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as risk from the continuous emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states begin extracting these artifacts, scientists aim to protect the habitats that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with certain safer, various non-dangerous materials, like possibly man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most destructive armaments can become foundation for marine organisms.