Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from boats at the conclusion of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They comprise a corroding carpet on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

Some of us anticipated to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains Andrey Vedenin.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first sent the images back. It was a remarkable experience, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had established habitats on the explosives, creating a regenerated habitat more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the tenacity of life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are supposed to be dangerous and harmful, he says.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, fuse pockets and storage boxes just a short distance from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the amount of fauna that was there, says Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 animals were living on every meter squared of the weapons, researchers reported in their paper on the observation. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is ironic that objects that are meant to eliminate everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, life returns to the most risky areas.

Artificial Features as Ocean Environments

Man-made structures such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create alternatives, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation shows that weapons could be similarly positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Numerous of individuals loaded them in vessels; a portion were placed in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the first time researchers have documented how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, retired drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more valuable for marine life as the marine environments are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically act as refuges – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Therefore a many of marine species that are usually rare or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Future Issues

Wherever military conflict has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually strewn with munitions, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material rest in our oceans.

The positions of these weapons are poorly recorded, in part because of international boundaries, secret armed forces records and the fact that documents are hidden in old files. They create an detonation and security hazard, as well as risk from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and different states begin removing these artifacts, experts aim to preserve the marine communities that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay weapons are currently being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses remaining from munitions with some less dangerous, some safe structures, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what occurs in Lübeck sets a precedent for replacing habitats after munitions removal in other locations – because even the most damaging weaponry can become framework for ocean ecosystems.