Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline lies a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from boats at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, thousands explosives have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially anticipated to see a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin remembers his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first transmitted footage. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Numerous of sea creatures had established habitats on the explosives, developing a revitalized habitat richer than the sea floor nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are expected to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of animal life that was present, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists wrote in their research on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to kill everything are drawing so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most risky areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This research demonstrates that weapons could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of workers transported them in boats; some were deposited in designated locations, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations effectively act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of marine species that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Factors

Wherever military conflict has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are often littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are inadequately mapped, in part because of international boundaries, secret defense data and the fact that records are hidden in historic archives. They pose an detonation and security danger, as well as threat from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations start extracting these artifacts, experts hope to safeguard the habitats that have developed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are presently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses left from weapons with some less dangerous, various non-dangerous objects, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a precedent for substituting habitats after weapon clearance elsewhere – because also the most damaging weaponry can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.