Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless weapons have become matted together over the years. They create a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

Researchers expected to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says the lead researcher.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the ROV first relayed pictures. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Thousands of ocean life had established habitats among the weapons, creating a renewed habitat more populous than the sea floor nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we discover in places that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was present, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, researchers documented in their paper on the observation. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are intended to destroy everything are attracting so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can create alternatives, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This investigation reveals that weapons could be similarly positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be found in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were dumped off the Germany's coast. Countless of individuals transported them in boats; some were dropped in specific locations, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time experts have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have turned into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more important for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations practically act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of marine species that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Factors

Wherever armed conflict has happened in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are typically containing munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our oceans.

The locations of these weapons are inadequately recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, classified armed forces records and the fact that documents are hidden in old files. They pose an detonation and safety hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations begin removing these relics, scientists plan to safeguard the marine communities that have established around them. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are already being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with some safer, various safe objects, like possibly man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He now wishes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because including the most harmful weaponry can become framework for new life.