Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline lies a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the World War II and left behind, thousands explosives have become matted together over the years. They form a decaying blanket on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

We initially anticipated to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. This was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Countless of sea creatures had settled amid the weapons, developing a revitalized marine community more populous than the sea floor surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the tenacity of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are supposed to be dangerous and harmful, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every square metre of the weapons, researchers wrote in their paper on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are meant to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer replacements, restoring some of the lost habitat. This research shows that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of arms were disposed of off the German coast. Thousands of workers placed them in vessels; some were deposited in designated locations, the remainder just dumped during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how marine life has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more crucial for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially function as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. Therefore a many of organisms that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are often littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material remain in our oceans.

The locations of these weapons are poorly recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the reality that documents are stored in historical records. They present an detonation and security hazard, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states embark on removing these relics, scientists plan to protect the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains left from weapons with certain more secure, some safe objects, like possibly man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing material after explosive extraction in other locations – because including the most harmful explosives can become framework for marine organisms.