Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a collection of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Discarded from vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They create a decaying blanket on the low-depth, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A increasing amount of visitors traveled to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions decayed.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers anticipated finding a barren area, with no life because it was all toxic, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin recalls his team members exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. This was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes among the munitions, forming a renewed ecosystem richer than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This marine city was testament to the resilience of life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are supposed to be hazardous and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one accessible fragment of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers wrote in their research on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only 8,000 organisms on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that things that are intended to destroy all life are attracting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world evolves after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most risky places.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and pipelines can create replacements, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This study reveals that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of arms were discarded off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of people placed them in vessels; some were deposited in specific locations, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time researchers have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures 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 home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas practically serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, explains Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of organisms that are otherwise scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the last century, adjacent waters are usually littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our oceans.

The sites of these weapons are inadequately mapped, partially because of national borders, classified armed forces records and the fact that records are hidden in historical records. They present an detonation and security risk, as well as threat from the ongoing leakage of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and different states begin extracting these remains, scientists aim to protect the ecosystems that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are presently being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains remaining from munitions with some more secure, some harmless structures, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently aspires that what happens in Lübeck creates a example for replacing habitats after weapon clearance elsewhere – because including the most damaging explosives can become scaffolding for marine organisms.