Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's coast rests a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a decaying blanket on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin recounts his team members reacting with shock when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Thousands of sea creatures had established habitats on the weapons, developing a renewed ecosystem richer than the ocean bottom nearby.

This marine city was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. Indeed surprising how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one visible piece of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were residing on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers documented in their paper on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are intended to kill everything are attracting so much life, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can provide replacements, restoring some of the lost habitat. This research shows that weapons could be equally beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of individuals placed them in barges; a portion were placed in designated areas, the remainder just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, retired energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively serve as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of marine species that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically containing munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of explosive material rest in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are insufficiently recorded, partially because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the situation that documents are stored in old files. They create an detonation and security risk, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and other countries begin removing these remains, experts aim to safeguard the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these steel remains remaining from munitions with certain safer, some safe materials, like maybe man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He now wishes that what occurs in Lübeck creates a example for substituting structures after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most destructive weaponry can become scaffolding for new life.