Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish sea off the Germany's coast lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Thrown off barges at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, numerous weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a rusting layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons eroded.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with no life because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a desert, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of sea creatures had made their homes amid the weapons, forming a revitalized habitat richer than the sea floor around it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the persistence of marine life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were living on iron containers, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were residing on every square metre of the weapons, researchers reported in their study on the finding. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are designed to eliminate everything are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Features as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide substitutes, restoring some of the removed habitat. This investigation reveals that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were discarded off the German shoreline. Countless of individuals placed them in vessels; a portion were deposited in designated sites, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time scientists have documented how marine life has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly denuded by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively function as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of organisms that are typically scarce or declining, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Anywhere warfare has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are often littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our marine environments.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, secret military information and the situation that archives are buried in old files. They create an explosion and safety risk, as well as risk from the persistent emission of hazardous substances.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these relics, experts plan to preserve the habitats that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are presently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses remaining from munitions with certain safer, some safe objects, like possibly artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck creates a example for replacing habitats after explosive extraction elsewhere – because even the most destructive explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.