Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They create a decaying layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Researchers expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team thought they would find a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his scientists reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. It was a great moment, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had settled amid the munitions, creating a revitalized ecosystem more populous than the sea floor around it.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of life. It is actually remarkable how much life we find in locations that are considered toxic and harmful, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were residing on metal shells, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were living on every square metre of the weapons, researchers documented in their research on the finding. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 organisms on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are intended to kill all life are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most risky areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that weapons could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Numerous of people transported them in boats; a portion were placed in specific sites, the remainder just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time researchers have documented how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of organisms that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are usually containing munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds lie in our seas.

The sites of these weapons are poorly recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the fact that archives are buried in historical records. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as risk from the ongoing release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries start extracting these relics, experts hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have developed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being removed.

We should substitute these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with some less dangerous, some non-dangerous objects, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after munitions removal in other locations – because also the most harmful weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.