Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a decaying layer on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons deteriorated.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first transmitted footage. This was a great moment, he notes.

Numerous of ocean life had made their homes on the munitions, developing a regenerated ecosystem more populous than the ocean bottom nearby.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Truly astonishing how much life we observe in places that are supposed to be toxic and risky, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were living on iron containers, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the old munitions. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were residing on every square metre of the munitions, researchers wrote in their study on the observation. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are designed to eliminate all life are attracting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most risky areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can provide alternatives, restoring some of the removed habitat. This study demonstrates that explosives could be similarly positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of arms were discarded off the German coast. Numerous of people transported them in boats; a portion were placed in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance scientists have recorded how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more valuable for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of species that are otherwise scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, adjacent waters are often littered with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are inadequately mapped, in part because of international boundaries, restricted defense data and the situation that records are stored in historic archives. They present an detonation and security hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries start clearing these relics, scientists aim to preserve the habitats that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses remaining from munitions with some less dangerous, some non-dangerous structures, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what happens in Lübeck creates a example for substituting habitats after explosive extraction elsewhere – because even the most damaging explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.