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

In the brackish waters off the German coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have become matted together over the decades. They form a rusting layer on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons decayed.

Some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the submersible first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he says.

Countless of marine animals had made their homes on the explosives, forming a renewed marine community richer than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was evidence to the resilience of life. Truly astonishing how much life we discover in places that are supposed to be toxic and harmful, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible fragment of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a marine reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, experts reported in their research on the discovery. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are designed to destroy everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation reveals that weapons could be equally positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the German shoreline. Countless of individuals placed them in boats; a portion were deposited in specific sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time scientists have studied how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically function as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are usually uncommon or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Anywhere military conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are typically littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tons of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The sites of these munitions are inadequately mapped, partly because of international boundaries, restricted armed forces records and the fact that archives are hidden in historic archives. They pose an detonation and safety risk, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and other countries embark on extracting these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are currently being removed.

We should substitute these metal carcasses originating from munitions with certain safer, various safe objects, like maybe artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for replacing structures after explosive extraction in different areas – because even the most damaging armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.