Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline sits a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and mines. Dumped from barges at the end of the World War II and left behind, countless weapons have become matted together over the decades. They form a decaying blanket on the low-depth, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the weapons eroded.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went searching to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, explains a scientist.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his colleagues reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. This was a remarkable experience, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had settled among the munitions, developing a regenerated habitat denser than the seabed around it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the tenacity of life. Indeed remarkable how much life we find in locations that are considered toxic and risky, he states.

In excess of 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible piece of TNT. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and mussels were all found on the discarded explosives. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were residing on every square metre of the munitions, experts documented in their study on the finding. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that items that are designed to destroy everything are hosting so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous places.

Man-made Structures as Marine Environments

Artificial features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can create substitutes, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This investigation reveals that weapons could be equally positive – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of weapons were discarded off the Germany's coast. Numerous of workers transported them in barges; a portion were placed in allocated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have studied how marine life has reacted.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have become reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These areas become even more important for wildlife as the seas are increasingly depleted by fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas practically act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, says Vedenin. Consequently a many of organisms that are usually rare or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever military conflict has happened in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are often containing munitions, says Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these explosives are inadequately documented, partly because of national borders, secret defense data and the fact that archives are stored in historic archives. They present an explosion and safety risk, as well as danger from the persistent emission of toxic chemicals.

As Germany and additional nations embark on clearing these remains, experts hope to protect the marine communities that have formed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are already being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures originating from munitions with some more secure, some harmless materials, like possibly concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now aspires that what occurs in the Bay of Lübeck sets a example for replacing habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because even the most destructive explosives can become foundation for new life.