Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast sits a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, thousands weapons have become matted together over the years. They comprise a rusting layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they observed surprised them. Vedenin remembers his team members reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. This was a memorable occasion, he says.

Numerous of marine animals had settled on the munitions, creating a regenerated marine community denser than the sea floor around it.

This marine city was proof to the persistence of marine life. Indeed surprising how much life we observe in locations that are supposed to be toxic and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers wrote in their paper on the finding. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are meant to kill all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer substitutes, restoring some of the removed habitat. This research shows that munitions could be equally advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of munitions were dumped off the Germany's coast. Thousands of workers loaded them in barges; some were dropped in allocated sites, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the first time scientists have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have turned into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more crucial for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of marine species that are usually rare or declining, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the last century, surrounding seas are usually containing explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our seas.

The sites of these munitions are poorly mapped, in part because of national borders, restricted defense data and the situation that documents are stored in historic archives. They create an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the persistent release of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states embark on extracting these remains, experts hope to preserve the marine communities that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being extracted.

We should replace these metal carcasses originating from weapons with some less dangerous, some safe materials, like maybe concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He now wishes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a model for replacing structures after munitions removal in other locations – because even the most damaging weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.