Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, thousands explosives have fused into clusters over the decades. They comprise a decaying layer on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

We initially thought to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

When the initial researchers 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 poisoned, says a scientist.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues shouting with surprise when the submersible first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Numerous of marine animals had settled among the explosives, creating a regenerated ecosystem more populous than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was evidence to the tenacity of life. It is actually surprising how much life we find in locations that are supposed to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every square metre of the explosives, experts documented in their research on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to kill all life are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most risky areas.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation reveals that munitions could be equally beneficial – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were discarded off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people placed them in vessels; a portion were placed in allocated sites, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the first time scientists have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to coral off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of marine species that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Issues

Wherever warfare has happened in the last century, nearby oceans are often littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material rest in our oceans.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently mapped, partially because of international boundaries, secret military information and the situation that records are stored in old files. They pose an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these remains, experts plan to protect the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being removed.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures originating from munitions with some less dangerous, various harmless structures, like possibly artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for replacing material after munitions removal in other locations – because even the most destructive explosives can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.