Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They form a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy 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 increasing amount of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members reacting with shock when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes among the explosives, forming a regenerated marine community denser than the sea floor surrounding it.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. Truly remarkable how much life we discover in places that are considered hazardous and risky, he says.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed chunk of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was there, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers reported in their study on the observation. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are designed to kill all life are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most risky locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can create replacements, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This research reveals that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Thousands of people placed them in vessels; a portion were placed in specific sites, others just dumped en route. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of organisms that are usually scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are usually strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently mapped, partially because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the fact that archives are buried in historic archives. They pose an detonation and safety risk, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations embark on extracting these relics, scientists hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have developed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being cleared.

We should replace these iron structures originating from munitions with some more secure, various harmless materials, like possibly concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after explosive extraction in other locations – because also the most destructive weaponry can become scaffolding for marine organisms.