Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, thousands explosives have become matted together over the decades. They comprise a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

Some of us thought to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin recounts his colleagues exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of ocean life had established habitats among the weapons, developing a revitalized ecosystem richer than the sea floor nearby.

This ocean community was testament to the persistence of marine life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we find in places that are considered toxic and harmful, he states.

More than 40 starfish had gathered on to one visible piece of explosive material. They were dwelling on iron containers, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was present, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 animals were living on every square metre of the munitions, scientists reported in their research on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are designed to kill all life are attracting so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life establishes itself to the most dangerous locations.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide replacements, replacing some of the lost habitat. This study reveals that munitions could be equally positive – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Countless of individuals placed them in barges; a portion were deposited in designated areas, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time experts have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas essentially act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of organisms that are usually scarce or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Factors

Anywhere armed conflict has happened in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are typically containing munitions, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances rest in our oceans.

The locations of these weapons are inadequately documented, in part because of international boundaries, classified armed forces records and the reality that archives are stored in historic archives. They create an detonation and safety hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states begin extracting these artifacts, scientists aim to safeguard the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are currently being removed.

It would be wise to replace these iron structures remaining from munitions with some less dangerous, various harmless structures, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a model for replacing structures after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for marine organisms.