Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German coast lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from boats at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless explosives have accumulated over the decades. They create a decaying blanket on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

We initially expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. It was a memorable occasion, he says.

Numerous of marine animals had established habitats amid the weapons, forming a regenerated ecosystem richer than the seabed nearby.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we find 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, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the old munitions. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every square metre of the explosives, researchers reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most risky locations.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create alternatives, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This research reveals that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of individuals transported them in boats; some were dropped in designated areas, the remainder just dumped en route. This is the initial instance experts have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have become reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially serve as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Factors

Wherever warfare has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually littered with weapons, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our oceans.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the reality that records are buried in old files. They create an explosion and security danger, as well as threat from the continuous release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries start removing these remains, scientists hope to protect the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains remaining from weapons with certain safer, some non-dangerous structures, like maybe artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting structures after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most damaging armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.