Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Prosper on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off barges at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, numerous weapons have become matted together over the decades. They create a decaying layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions eroded.

Some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Numerous of ocean life had made their homes on the weapons, developing a renewed ecosystem more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

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

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and transport cases just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all observed on the discarded explosives. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were living on every meter squared of the explosives, researchers reported in their paper on the observation. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are meant to eliminate all life are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature evolves after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide replacements, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This investigation reveals that explosives could be similarly beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Countless of individuals transported them in vessels; some were dropped in allocated sites, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time scientists have recorded how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially function as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are typically rare or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are often strewn with munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our seas.

The locations of these explosives are inadequately mapped, in part because of sovereign limits, secret armed forces records and the reality that archives are buried in old files. They pose an detonation and safety risk, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and additional nations begin removing these relics, researchers plan to preserve the ecosystems that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being cleared.

We should replace these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with certain more secure, some harmless structures, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck sets a model for replacing material after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most harmful weaponry can become framework for new life.