Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the second world war and left behind, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They form a rusting layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

We initially anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. This was a remarkable experience, he notes.

Countless of ocean life had settled among the weapons, creating a revitalized marine community richer than the sea floor nearby.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of life. Indeed surprising how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were residing on steel casings, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were residing on every square metre of the munitions, scientists wrote in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to destroy everything are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most hazardous locations.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create replacements, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation shows that weapons could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of people transported them in boats; a portion were dropped in allocated sites, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more important for organisms as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations practically function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of species that are otherwise uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the recent history, adjacent waters are typically containing explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these munitions are inadequately documented, in part because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the fact that archives are hidden in old files. They present an explosion and safety hazard, as well as danger from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations begin removing these relics, researchers aim to protect the marine communities that have developed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being cleared.

Researchers recommend substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with certain safer, various non-dangerous materials, like maybe man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He now wishes that what happens in Lübeck sets a model for substituting material after munitions removal in different areas – because including the most damaging explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.