Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, thousands munitions have accumulated over the decades. They create a decaying blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

We initially thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first sent the images back. It was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes amid the weapons, forming a revitalized marine community more populous than the seabed around it.

This marine city was evidence to the resilience of life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, researchers reported in their study on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are meant to destroy everything are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most risky areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create replacements, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This study demonstrates that explosives could be similarly positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of arms were disposed of off the German coast. Thousands of people transported them in boats; some were dropped in designated sites, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance experts have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. Therefore a many of marine species that are typically rare or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually containing munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our seas.

The positions of these weapons are poorly recorded, in part because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the reality that records are stored in historical records. They pose an detonation and safety hazard, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and other countries begin removing these remains, researchers plan to protect the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures left from weapons with certain more secure, some safe objects, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most harmful explosives can become framework for new life.