Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Dumped Armaments

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline rests a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, countless weapons have fused into clusters over the years. They create a decaying carpet on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, researchers thought they would find a barren area, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin recounts his scientists shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he notes.

Thousands of ocean life had made their homes amid the weapons, developing a renewed ecosystem denser than the sea floor surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the persistence of life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we find in places that are supposed to be hazardous and dangerous, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had gathered on to one exposed chunk of explosive material. They were residing on steel casings, fuse pockets and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were residing on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers wrote in their study on the observation. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are designed to eliminate everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, life returns to the most hazardous locations.

Artificial Structures as Marine Environments

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, replacing some of the removed habitat. This research demonstrates that explosives could be similarly positive – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of arms were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Thousands of individuals placed them in boats; a portion were deposited in specific sites, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time researchers have studied how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into marine habitats
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become habitats for marine life along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly stripped by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations effectively act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of species that are usually uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Coming Factors

Wherever warfare has taken place in the last century, adjacent waters are typically containing munitions, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The sites of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partially because of international boundaries, restricted defense data and the situation that documents are hidden in historic archives. They pose an explosion and safety danger, as well as risk from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations begin clearing these relics, scientists hope to safeguard the ecosystems that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being cleared.

We should substitute these metal carcasses originating from munitions with certain safer, various safe structures, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what happens in Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing habitats after explosive extraction in other locations – because also the most destructive weaponry can become framework for new life.