Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's coast rests a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, thousands munitions have accumulated over the years. They comprise a decaying layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes amid the explosives, forming a regenerated ecosystem more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the resilience of life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we find in areas that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of creatures that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every square metre of the weapons, scientists reported in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are designed to destroy everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can create replacements, replacing some of the lost habitat. This study demonstrates that weapons could be equally positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of people placed them in barges; some were placed in allocated locations, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time scientists have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations essentially act as refuges – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are usually scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Issues

Anywhere military conflict has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are usually containing explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our seas.

The positions of these weapons are poorly mapped, in part because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the fact that archives are stored in old files. They create an detonation and safety danger, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and additional nations begin removing these remains, experts aim to preserve the marine communities that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains left from weapons with certain more secure, some harmless objects, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now aspires that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for substituting habitats after explosive extraction elsewhere – because even the most damaging armaments can become foundation for new life.