Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They create a corroding layer on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

We initially expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a remarkable experience, he says.

Numerous of sea creatures had established habitats amid the munitions, developing a renewed habitat more populous than the sea floor nearby.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the tenacity of life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we find in places that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was present, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, scientists wrote in their study on the finding. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that things that are meant to eliminate everything are attracting so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how nature evolves after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most dangerous locations.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Environments

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This research shows that munitions could be similarly positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of individuals transported them in boats; a portion were placed in specific sites, the remainder just dumped during transport. This is the first time researchers have studied how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have turned into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more important for wildlife as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations essentially act as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are inadequately documented, in part because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the reality that documents are hidden in historic archives. They create an explosion and security risk, as well as danger from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and other countries begin clearing these remains, researchers hope to protect the ecosystems that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these steel remains left from weapons with some more secure, various harmless structures, like perhaps man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for replacing structures after explosive extraction in other locations – because also the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for marine organisms.