Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast rests a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, countless munitions have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a decaying layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Some of us thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says the lead researcher.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. This was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of sea creatures had settled on the weapons, creating a regenerated marine community denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Indeed surprising how much life we discover in places that are considered toxic and harmful, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all observed on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, experts wrote in their study on the finding. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to kill everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most risky places.

Artificial Features as Marine Environments

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can provide alternatives, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that weapons could be equally positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were dumped off the Germany's coast. Countless of workers placed them in boats; some were deposited in specific sites, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the first time scientists have studied how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have become marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for marine life as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. Therefore a many of marine species that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are typically strewn with munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently mapped, partly because of sovereign limits, classified armed forces records and the reality that archives are stored in historic archives. They pose an detonation and security risk, as well as threat from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries embark on removing these artifacts, researchers hope to safeguard the marine communities that have established in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains left from weapons with certain more secure, some non-dangerous materials, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing material after explosive extraction elsewhere – because including the most harmful weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.