Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Discarded Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's coast lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, numerous munitions have become matted together over the years. They form a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons deteriorated.

We initially anticipated to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went searching to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team thought they would find a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains a scientist.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first transmitted footage. That moment was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of ocean life had made their homes amid the explosives, forming a renewed ecosystem denser than the sea floor nearby.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of life. Indeed remarkable how much marine organisms we find in areas that are considered toxic and risky, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were living on steel casings, ignition chambers and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of animal life that was present, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand animals were living on every meter squared of the explosives, scientists documented in their paper on the observation. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that objects that are designed to destroy everything are hosting so much life, explains Vedenin. One can observe how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life returns to the most hazardous places.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Environments

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer replacements, restoring some of the removed marine environment. This research reveals that explosives could be equally advantageous – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is probable to be found in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were dumped off the German coast. Thousands of people placed them in vessels; a portion were placed in specific areas, the remainder just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have studied how ocean organisms has reacted.

Global Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have turned into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more important for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas effectively function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, states Vedenin. Consequently a many of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are thriving.

Coming Considerations

Wherever warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically containing weapons, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of explosive material remain in our oceans.

The locations of these weapons are insufficiently recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the fact that archives are buried in historical records. They present an detonation and security danger, as well as danger from the persistent release of hazardous substances.

As the German government and other countries embark on extracting these artifacts, scientists aim to protect the marine communities that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these steel remains remaining from munitions with certain more secure, various harmless objects, like possibly artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what happens in Lübeck creates a example for substituting material after explosive extraction in other locations – because including the most damaging weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.