Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's coast sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, countless munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They create a rusting carpet on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

We initially expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us thought they would find a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, says the lead researcher.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. This was a great moment, he notes.

Thousands of marine animals had established habitats on the munitions, developing a regenerated ecosystem more populous than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Indeed surprising how much life we discover in places that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were living on metal shells, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of creatures that was present, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every square metre of the weapons, experts reported in their study on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are intended to kill all life are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create substitutes, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This research reveals that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of munitions were discarded off the Germany's coast. Thousands of individuals transported them in vessels; some were placed in allocated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard en route. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how marine life has adapted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for organisms as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. Therefore a many of species that are typically uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Future Factors

Wherever armed conflict has happened in the last century, adjacent waters are typically strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The positions of these weapons are inadequately mapped, in part because of sovereign limits, restricted military information and the fact that records are stored in historical records. They create an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations embark on removing these remains, experts hope to preserve the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being extracted.

We should substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with certain more secure, some non-dangerous objects, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He now hopes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting material after munitions removal in different areas – because including the most damaging armaments can become framework for new life.