Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline rests a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, thousands munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

Researchers expected to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his team members reacting with shock when the submersible first sent the images back. This was a remarkable experience, he says.

Numerous of marine animals had settled among the weapons, creating a regenerated habitat richer than the sea floor surrounding it.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much life we observe in areas that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were dwelling on metal shells, detonator compartments and transport cases just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every meter squared of the munitions, scientists reported in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are meant to destroy everything are hosting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide substitutes, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This study reveals that explosives could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of workers loaded them in boats; some were placed in specific areas, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time researchers have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have turned into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more valuable for marine life as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is prohibited, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are otherwise scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, surrounding seas are usually strewn with weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are poorly mapped, partially because of international boundaries, restricted defense data and the fact that records are stored in old files. They present an detonation and safety danger, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries begin clearing these artifacts, scientists aim to preserve the marine communities that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being extracted.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from munitions with certain more secure, various harmless objects, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing habitats after munitions removal in other locations – because including the most damaging armaments can become framework for new life.