Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, countless weapons have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a rusting carpet on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

We initially thought to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, says a scientist.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Numerous of ocean life had made their homes on the weapons, developing a renewed ecosystem denser than the sea floor nearby.

This ocean community was testament to the resilience of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much life we discover in locations that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible piece of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, detonator compartments and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers reported in their research on the observation. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are intended to eliminate everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide substitutes, restoring some of the lost marine environment. This study shows that weapons could be similarly beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tons of munitions were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of workers loaded them in boats; a portion were placed in allocated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time experts have studied how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels 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 reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These places become even more crucial for marine life as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations practically serve as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are usually rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has taken place in the last century, nearby oceans are typically littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our seas.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the situation that archives are hidden in old files. They create an detonation and safety risk, as well as risk from the persistent release of hazardous substances.

As Germany and other countries begin extracting these relics, scientists aim to safeguard the marine communities that have established around them. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being cleared.

We should replace these metal carcasses originating from weapons with certain less dangerous, various safe objects, like perhaps man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what happens in Lübeck sets a example for substituting habitats after explosive extraction in other locations – because also the most destructive weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.