Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish sea off the Germany's coast rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off barges at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, thousands weapons have become matted together over the years. They comprise a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

We initially anticipated to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members reacting with shock when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had settled amid the weapons, developing a revitalized ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was evidence to the resilience of marine life. It is actually surprising how much life we find in areas that are supposed to be toxic and harmful, he states.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every square metre of the munitions, scientists reported in their research on the observation. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is ironic that things that are meant to destroy all life are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most hazardous locations.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This study shows that weapons could be comparably positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of individuals placed them in boats; some were deposited in allocated sites, others just dumped during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

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

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a many of marine species that are usually scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever warfare has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are often strewn with munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our marine environments.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently mapped, partly because of sovereign limits, restricted defense data and the fact that documents are stored in historic archives. They pose an explosion and safety danger, as well as risk from the ongoing emission of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states begin extracting these artifacts, experts hope to preserve the marine communities that have developed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains left from munitions with some less dangerous, some harmless materials, like maybe artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in Lübeck sets a precedent for substituting habitats after explosive extraction in different areas – because also the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for new life.