Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off barges at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands munitions have become matted together over the decades. They create a corroding blanket on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

When the team went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes on the munitions, creating a renewed marine community denser than the sea floor nearby.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Truly surprising how much life we find in places that are considered dangerous and harmful, he states.

In excess of 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were living on metal shells, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the old munitions. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers documented in their study on the finding. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to destroy all life are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most risky locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, restoring some of the lost habitat. This study shows that weapons could be equally positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the German coast. Numerous of workers loaded them in boats; some were dropped in designated locations, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time researchers have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more important for marine life as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially function as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. Therefore a many of organisms that are typically scarce or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically littered with weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our seas.

The positions of these weapons are inadequately documented, partly because of international boundaries, classified military information and the reality that archives are hidden in historical records. They pose an explosion and security risk, as well as threat from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states begin removing these remains, scientists aim to safeguard the habitats that have established around them. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with some safer, various harmless objects, like perhaps man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He now aspires that what occurs in Lübeck sets a model for substituting habitats after munitions removal in other locations – because including the most damaging weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.