Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the second world war and left behind, thousands weapons have accumulated over the years. They form a decaying blanket on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members shouting with surprise when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Thousands of marine animals had settled amid the munitions, forming a renewed marine community more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the resilience of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much life we discover in places that are expected to be toxic and risky, he states.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were residing on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was present, states Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were residing on every square metre of the munitions, researchers documented in their research on the discovery. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are meant to kill all life are attracting so much life, says Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, life returns to the most risky areas.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can provide replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This study shows that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the German coast. Thousands of individuals loaded them in boats; a portion were dropped in specific sites, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have turned into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more crucial for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively serve as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a lot of organisms that are typically rare or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Wherever warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically strewn with munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently mapped, partly because of national borders, secret military information and the situation that documents are stored in historic archives. They pose an detonation and safety hazard, as well as threat from the persistent release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and additional nations start extracting these artifacts, researchers plan to preserve the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being extracted.

Researchers recommend substitute these steel remains originating from weapons with certain safer, some harmless structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing structures after munitions removal in different areas – because including the most damaging weaponry can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.