Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty waters off the German shoreline lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off barges at the end of the World War II and forgotten about, numerous munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They comprise a corroding blanket on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

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

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin remembers his colleagues reacting with shock when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had settled amid the munitions, developing a revitalized marine community richer than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was testament to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we find in places that are supposed to be dangerous and risky, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible chunk of TNT. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every meter squared of the weapons, experts documented in their research on the finding. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that items that are designed to destroy everything are drawing so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how nature evolves after a major disaster such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can create substitutes, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This study shows that munitions could be equally beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were discarded off the German shoreline. Thousands of workers loaded them in barges; some were placed in specific locations, others just dumped while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively serve as refuges – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, says Vedenin. Consequently a many of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Issues

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are often containing explosives, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances rest in our seas.

The sites of these munitions are insufficiently documented, partly because of international boundaries, restricted military information and the reality that documents are hidden in historical records. They present an explosion and safety danger, as well as risk from the persistent leakage of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and other countries embark on clearing these remains, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains left from weapons with some safer, various safe objects, like possibly artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what transpires in Lübeck creates a example for substituting material after explosive extraction elsewhere – because even the most damaging weaponry can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.