Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the brackish waters off the Germany's coast sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless explosives have become matted together over the years. They form a rusting blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with no life because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes amid the weapons, developing a regenerated marine community richer than the ocean bottom nearby.

This ocean community was proof to the persistence of life. It is actually surprising how much life we observe in places that are expected to be dangerous and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every meter squared of the munitions, scientists wrote in their study on the discovery. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that objects that are intended to destroy everything are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, restoring some of the lost habitat. This research reveals that weapons could be similarly positive – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Countless of individuals loaded them in barges; a portion were placed in specific locations, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance experts have documented how marine life has adapted.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have become reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become homes for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of marine species that are usually uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Anywhere warfare has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are often strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material lie in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are insufficiently documented, partially because of sovereign limits, classified armed forces records and the situation that documents are hidden in old files. They create an explosion and security risk, as well as risk from the persistent emission of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states start clearing these artifacts, researchers aim to safeguard the ecosystems that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these iron structures left from weapons with some safer, various harmless structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most destructive explosives can become scaffolding for marine organisms.