Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Discarded Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from boats at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands explosives have become matted together over the years. They comprise a corroding blanket on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Researchers expected to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his scientists shouting with surprise when the submersible first relayed pictures. This was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had made their homes among the munitions, creating a regenerated habitat denser than the sea floor nearby.

This marine city was proof to the tenacity of life. Truly astonishing how much life we observe in places that are considered dangerous and risky, he states.

More than 40 sea stars had gathered on to one accessible chunk of TNT. They were living on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was present, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were dwelling on every meter squared of the weapons, experts wrote in their study on the observation. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that items that are intended to eliminate everything are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most dangerous areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial constructions such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This research demonstrates that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of munitions were discarded off the German coast. Thousands of individuals placed them in boats; some were placed in specific areas, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance experts have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas effectively act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a lot of organisms that are otherwise rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are usually containing explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our seas.

The sites of these weapons are poorly documented, in part because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the fact that records are hidden in historic archives. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as threat from the ongoing emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and additional nations begin extracting these remains, experts hope to preserve the habitats that have formed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being extracted.

We should substitute these metal carcasses left from munitions with some more secure, some safe objects, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because also the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.