Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and forgotten about, countless explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists came to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

Researchers expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he recalls.

Countless of marine animals had settled among the munitions, creating a regenerated marine community denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the persistence of life. Truly remarkable how much life we observe in areas that are supposed to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed piece of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were living on every square metre of the explosives, scientists reported in their research on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are designed to kill all life are attracting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how nature evolves after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create replacements, compensating for some of the lost habitat. This investigation reveals that weapons could be similarly beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of arms were disposed of off the German coast. Thousands of workers loaded them in boats; a portion were deposited in specific locations, the remainder just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how marine life has adapted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have become reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more crucial for organisms as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. Therefore a many of marine species that are otherwise scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Issues

Wherever warfare has happened in the recent history, surrounding seas are typically strewn with explosives, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The locations of these weapons are poorly mapped, partly because of national borders, secret military information and the reality that documents are hidden in old files. They present an detonation and security danger, as well as danger from the continuous release of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states embark on removing these artifacts, scientists aim to safeguard the habitats that have established around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being extracted.

We should substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with some less dangerous, various non-dangerous structures, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing structures after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most destructive armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.