Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, thousands weapons have accumulated over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons eroded.

Researchers anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

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

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had established habitats among the explosives, creating a renewed habitat richer than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much life we observe in areas that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one visible chunk of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every meter squared of the explosives, experts reported in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 organisms on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to destroy all life are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create replacements, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation reveals that munitions could be equally advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tons of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Thousands of people placed them in vessels; some were placed in specific locations, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for marine life along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas effectively serve as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are usually scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are typically strewn with weapons, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our oceans.

The locations of these explosives are inadequately recorded, in part because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the situation that documents are hidden in historical records. They create an explosion and safety hazard, as well as risk from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states begin clearing these artifacts, researchers aim to preserve the marine communities that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being cleared.

We should replace these metal carcasses originating from munitions with some more secure, various safe objects, like possibly man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting structures after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most destructive weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.