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

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, countless munitions have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a rusting blanket on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions deteriorated.

We initially anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the ROV first sent the images back. This was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats on the explosives, developing a revitalized marine community more populous than the sea floor nearby.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the persistence of life. It is actually surprising how much marine organisms we find in areas that are considered dangerous and dangerous, he states.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were living on metal shells, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the old munitions. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every meter squared of the munitions, researchers wrote in their paper on the finding. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 organisms on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to kill all life are drawing so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most hazardous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, replacing some of the destroyed habitat. This study demonstrates that munitions could be similarly positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be duplicated in different areas.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were discarded off the German coast. Thousands of individuals transported them in vessels; a portion were dropped in designated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how marine life has reacted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have become reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more important for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially function as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is prohibited, says Vedenin. Consequently a many of organisms that are usually scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are usually littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are poorly documented, partially because of international boundaries, classified military information and the fact that documents are stored in historical records. They present an detonation and security risk, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries embark on removing these artifacts, scientists plan to safeguard the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being removed.

We should substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with some more secure, various harmless objects, like possibly artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for substituting structures after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most harmful armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.