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

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, thousands munitions have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a corroding blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

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

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

What they found surprised them. Vedenin recalls his scientists shouting with surprise when the submersible first transmitted footage. This was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of marine animals had made their homes among the explosives, forming a renewed marine community richer than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

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

In excess of 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, fuse pockets and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the old munitions. You could compare it with a coral reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the munitions, researchers wrote in their study on the observation. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand organisms on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that things that are meant to kill all life are hosting so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Structures as Marine Habitats

Artificial structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can create replacements, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This research demonstrates that munitions could be similarly positive – the explosion of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of munitions were disposed of off the German coast. Countless of people placed them in vessels; some were deposited in designated sites, the remainder just discarded at sea during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned oil and gas structures have transformed into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These places become even more important for marine life as the seas are increasingly denuded by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially serve as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Therefore a many of species that are typically uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Wherever armed conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are typically littered with explosives, says Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are insufficiently recorded, partially because of sovereign limits, classified defense data and the situation that archives are stored in old files. They create an detonation and safety risk, as well as risk from the ongoing leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states start removing these remains, experts plan to protect the marine communities that have established in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains originating from weapons with certain less dangerous, various non-dangerous materials, like perhaps man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He now aspires that what occurs in Lübeck creates a example for substituting habitats after munitions removal elsewhere – because including the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.