Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, thousands munitions 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 tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Researchers thought to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, researchers thought they would find a desert, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of sea creatures had established habitats amid the munitions, creating a regenerated ecosystem denser than the ocean bottom around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. Truly astonishing how much life we discover in locations that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he explains.

More than 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the old munitions. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of creatures that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were living on every meter squared of the munitions, scientists reported in their paper on the finding. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is ironic that things that are intended to destroy all life are attracting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, restoring some of the lost habitat. This research reveals that explosives could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of munitions were disposed of off the German shoreline. Thousands of people placed them in boats; some were placed in allocated areas, others just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time researchers have recorded how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the seas are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively act as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, says Vedenin. Consequently a lot of organisms that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Wherever warfare has happened in the last century, nearby oceans are typically strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these explosives are insufficiently documented, partly because of international boundaries, classified defense data and the reality that records are buried in historical records. They pose an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the persistent emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations begin removing these artifacts, experts aim to protect the ecosystems that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being removed.

We should substitute these steel remains left from munitions with certain less dangerous, various non-dangerous materials, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing material after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for new life.