Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and left behind, numerous explosives have accumulated over the years. They form a decaying carpet on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

Some of us anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us thought they would find a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Numerous of ocean life had settled on the munitions, forming a regenerated habitat denser than the ocean bottom around it.

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

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were dwelling on steel casings, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was there, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every meter squared of the munitions, scientists documented in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are meant to kill everything are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most risky places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed habitat. This study demonstrates that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of people loaded them in boats; some were dropped in designated locations, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time researchers have studied how marine life has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have become reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of organisms that are usually uncommon or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the last century, surrounding seas are usually littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material remain in our oceans.

The sites of these explosives are inadequately recorded, partially because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the fact that archives are stored in historic archives. They pose an detonation and security risk, as well as risk from the persistent emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations begin clearing these artifacts, researchers aim to preserve the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these iron structures left from munitions with certain more secure, various safe structures, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing structures after weapon clearance in other locations – because even the most destructive armaments can become framework for new life.