Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Discarded Armaments

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, numerous weapons have accumulated over the decades. They form a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team thought they would find a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of sea creatures had established habitats on the weapons, forming a revitalized ecosystem denser than the seabed around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much life we observe in locations that are supposed to be hazardous and risky, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were living on metal shells, fuse pockets and storage boxes just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every square metre of the munitions, experts reported in their study on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are meant to eliminate everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create replacements, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This research reveals that weapons could be equally beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of individuals placed them in boats; a portion were deposited in designated sites, others just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the seas are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations effectively function as refuges – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, says Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are usually rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are usually strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our seas.

The locations of these munitions are poorly documented, in part because of international boundaries, secret defense data and the fact that records are hidden in historic archives. They pose an detonation and safety danger, as well as risk from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries embark on extracting these relics, scientists plan to preserve the marine communities that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being removed.

We should substitute these iron structures left from weapons with some less dangerous, some harmless structures, like perhaps artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because also the most harmful armaments can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.