Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous explosives have become matted together over the decades. They form a rusting layer on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the munitions deteriorated.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes among the weapons, forming a renewed habitat richer than the sea floor around it.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he says.

Over 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible piece of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the old munitions. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every square metre of the munitions, researchers reported in their paper on the finding. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are meant to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most risky places.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, replacing some of the lost habitat. This study demonstrates that weapons could be similarly advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of arms were disposed of off the German shoreline. Numerous of workers loaded them in barges; a portion were placed in designated areas, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance experts have recorded how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These places become even more crucial for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, explains Vedenin. Consequently a lot of species that are typically rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Considerations

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are usually strewn with weapons, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The positions of these munitions are inadequately documented, partially because of international boundaries, classified defense data and the fact that records are buried in old files. They present an detonation and safety danger, as well as risk from the persistent release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations embark on removing these remains, researchers aim to protect the marine communities that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are presently being removed.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures left from munitions with some less dangerous, some non-dangerous objects, like perhaps concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing material after explosive extraction in different areas – because including the most destructive armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.