Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a corroding layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers anticipated to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recounts his team members shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Countless of ocean life had settled on the explosives, developing a revitalized ecosystem denser than the seabed nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Truly remarkable how much life we discover in locations that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, researchers reported in their research on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to kill all life are hosting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create substitutes, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation demonstrates that explosives could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the German coast. Countless of workers placed them in barges; some were placed in allocated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time experts have recorded how marine life has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. Consequently a many of organisms that are usually rare or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the last century, adjacent waters are usually littered with weapons, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these explosives are inadequately mapped, in part because of international boundaries, secret military information and the situation that records are stored in historic archives. They present an explosion and security danger, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries begin removing these relics, researchers hope to safeguard the marine communities that have established in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are currently being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with certain safer, some non-dangerous materials, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after explosive extraction in different areas – because including the most harmful explosives can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.