Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German coast sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They form a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

We initially thought to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

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

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes amid the munitions, developing a revitalized ecosystem denser than the sea floor around it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the resilience of life. Truly remarkable how much life we observe in places that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he states.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were residing on iron containers, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every square metre of the explosives, experts wrote in their study on the finding. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that things that are designed to eliminate all life are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most risky places.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This research shows that munitions could be equally beneficial – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of arms were dumped off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people placed them in barges; a portion were placed in specific locations, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time researchers have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have turned into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become homes for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of 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, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations essentially act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of marine species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are often containing weapons, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material remain in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are insufficiently documented, partially because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the situation that documents are stored in historical records. They pose an explosion and security risk, as well as risk from the continuous emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and different states begin removing these relics, experts plan to preserve the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being extracted.

Researchers recommend substitute these iron structures left from munitions with some safer, some safe materials, like possibly man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a model for replacing habitats after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most damaging weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.