Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast sits a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the end of the second world war and left behind, countless munitions have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a decaying carpet on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

We initially thought to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, some of us anticipated finding a barren area, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. It was a great moment, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had established habitats amid the munitions, creating a revitalized habitat denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This ocean community was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Indeed astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in places that are expected to be dangerous and harmful, he says.

More than 40 starfish had clustered on to one accessible fragment of explosive material. They were residing on metal shells, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every square metre of the explosives, researchers reported in their research on the finding. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are meant to kill everything are hosting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adjusts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Environments

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can provide replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This study demonstrates that explosives could be similarly beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of workers loaded them in vessels; some were placed in specific sites, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the first time experts have recorded how marine life has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for marine life as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of marine species that are otherwise rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Issues

Anywhere military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our marine environments.

The locations of these weapons are inadequately mapped, partially because of national borders, secret defense data and the reality that documents are stored in historical records. They present an explosion and security hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing release of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states begin extracting these artifacts, experts aim to protect the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are already being cleared.

We should substitute these metal carcasses left from weapons with certain safer, various safe structures, like possibly artificial reefs, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in Lübeck sets a example for substituting material after munitions removal in different areas – because even the most harmful weaponry can become foundation for ocean ecosystems.