Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the World War II and left behind, numerous explosives have accumulated over the years. They form a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. That moment was a remarkable experience, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had settled amid the weapons, forming a regenerated habitat more populous than the sea floor surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in places that are expected to be toxic and risky, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were living on iron containers, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, researchers documented in their research on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are intended to destroy everything are hosting so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation reveals that munitions could be equally positive – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of individuals transported them in barges; a portion were deposited in specific locations, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the first time experts have studied how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more important for organisms as the oceans are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of human activity is banned, explains Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are typically scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Anywhere warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are usually littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our oceans.

The positions of these explosives are poorly recorded, partly because of international boundaries, restricted armed forces records and the reality that archives are stored in old files. They pose an detonation and security danger, as well as threat from the persistent emission of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states start removing these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the marine communities that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being removed.

We should substitute these steel remains remaining from munitions with certain less dangerous, various harmless structures, like maybe artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck sets a precedent for substituting structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because including the most harmful weaponry can become framework for marine organisms.