Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Dumped Weapons

In the brackish sea off the German coast lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, numerous munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They create a decaying blanket on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the munitions decayed.

Researchers expected to see a desert, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recalls his scientists reacting with shock when the ROV first relayed pictures. It was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Countless of marine animals had settled amid the weapons, forming a revitalized habitat richer than the sea floor nearby.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of marine life. Truly astonishing how much life we discover in locations that are considered toxic and dangerous, he explains.

In excess of 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

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

It is surprising that objects that are meant to eliminate all life are attracting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most hazardous locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can create substitutes, restoring some of the destroyed habitat. This study reveals that munitions could be equally beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's coast. Numerous of individuals placed them in vessels; a portion were deposited in designated locations, others just dumped en route. This is the initial instance experts have documented how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned drilling platforms have transformed into coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the first world war have become environments for marine life along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations practically serve as refuges – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a numerous of species that are otherwise rare or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Anywhere warfare has taken place in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are usually littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our seas.

The positions of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partly because of international boundaries, secret defense data and the situation that archives are hidden in old files. They create an explosion and safety danger, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries start extracting these remains, experts hope to preserve the marine communities that have established around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being extracted.

We should replace these iron structures originating from weapons with some safer, some safe materials, like maybe man-made habitats, states Vedenin.

He presently aspires that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for replacing habitats after munitions removal in other locations – because even the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for marine organisms.