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

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands explosives have accumulated over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons eroded.

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a desert, with no life because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the submersible first transmitted footage. It was a remarkable experience, he says.

Thousands of sea creatures had established habitats on the explosives, developing a renewed marine community richer than the ocean bottom nearby.

This ocean community was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Truly astonishing how much life we discover in places that are considered hazardous and risky, he says.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible fragment of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every meter squared of the explosives, experts wrote in their paper on the discovery. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are intended to eliminate everything are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can offer substitutes, replacing some of the removed habitat. This research demonstrates that weapons could be equally beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of workers placed them in boats; some were placed in specific sites, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired energy installations have become marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more valuable for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively function as refuges – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a many of marine species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the recent history, nearby oceans are usually strewn with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material lie in our oceans.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently mapped, partially because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the situation that archives are stored in historic archives. They pose an explosion and security danger, as well as danger from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries begin removing these relics, experts hope to preserve the marine communities that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being extracted.

We should replace these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with certain more secure, various harmless materials, like perhaps man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck sets a precedent for substituting material after weapon clearance elsewhere – because including the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for new life.