Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Discarded Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German coast lies a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from boats at the conclusion of the World War II and forgotten about, countless munitions have accumulated over the years. They form a rusting carpet on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially anticipated to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went looking to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they found astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members reacting with shock when the ROV first sent the images back. This was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Countless of sea creatures had made their homes on the weapons, forming a renewed habitat richer than the sea floor surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the persistence of life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we find in locations that are supposed to be toxic and dangerous, he says.

In excess of 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crabs, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the amount of animal life that was there, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, scientists reported in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is ironic that items that are meant to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide alternatives, compensating for some of the removed habitat. This investigation reveals that weapons could be similarly positive – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found in other locations.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of people placed them in boats; some were deposited in designated areas, others just dumped en route. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more crucial for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations practically act as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of species that are typically rare or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Considerations

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are often strewn with explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the fact that documents are hidden in historic archives. They present an detonation and safety hazard, as well as danger from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and different states start removing these relics, scientists plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are already being cleared.

We should replace these iron structures left from munitions with some safer, various harmless materials, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in Lübeck establishes a precedent for substituting habitats after weapon clearance elsewhere – because also the most harmful armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.