Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German coast lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, thousands weapons have become matted together over the years. They comprise a corroding carpet on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Researchers expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin recounts his team members shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. This was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of ocean life had established habitats amid the weapons, creating a renewed habitat denser than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Truly surprising how much life we find in places that are supposed to be hazardous and dangerous, he says.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were residing on metal shells, detonator compartments and storage boxes just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every square metre of the explosives, scientists wrote in their study on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to kill everything are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Artificial Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can create replacements, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This study demonstrates that explosives could be equally advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Thousands of people transported them in vessels; some were dropped in allocated locations, others just dumped while traveling. This is the first time experts have documented how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have turned into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are usually uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Wherever warfare has happened in the last century, surrounding seas are usually littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently documented, partly because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the fact that archives are hidden in historical records. They pose an detonation and safety risk, as well as risk from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries embark on removing these relics, scientists hope to preserve the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are presently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses remaining from munitions with certain safer, some harmless materials, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing material after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most damaging armaments can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.