Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, countless explosives have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

We initially expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin recounts his team members shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had settled amid the munitions, forming a renewed ecosystem more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much life we find in areas that are expected to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one visible piece of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, ignition chambers and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the weapons, experts wrote in their research on the observation. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to kill all life are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most risky locations.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can create substitutes, replacing some of the removed habitat. This investigation shows that weapons could be similarly beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be found in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people transported them in barges; some were dropped in specific locations, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time scientists have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired energy installations have become reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Anywhere warfare has happened in the recent history, adjacent waters are often littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our oceans.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently mapped, partly because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the reality that documents are buried in historical records. They create an detonation and security danger, as well as danger from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries begin removing these remains, researchers hope to protect the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to replace these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with some safer, some safe materials, like perhaps concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting material after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most destructive armaments can become scaffolding for new life.