Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Naval Mines: The Way Marine Life Thrives on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from boats at the end of the second world war and neglected, thousands explosives have accumulated over the years. They create a corroding blanket on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A growing number of tourists came to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the munitions eroded.

Some of us thought to see a barren area, with no life because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

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

Thousands of sea creatures had established habitats among the weapons, forming a renewed marine community richer than the sea floor surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of life. Truly remarkable how much life we find in places that are considered hazardous and dangerous, he says.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one visible fragment of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, detonator compartments and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a reef ecosystem in terms of the amount of fauna that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand creatures were living on every meter squared of the munitions, experts reported in their research on the finding. The adjacent region was much less diverse, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are intended to eliminate everything are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. It's evident how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Marine Habitats

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can create alternatives, compensating for some of the lost marine environment. This study demonstrates that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Countless of people placed them in vessels; some were dropped in specific locations, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time experts have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have transformed into marine habitats
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for creatures along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to coral off Asan in Guam

These locations become even more important for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly denuded by fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations practically serve as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. Consequently a lot of organisms that are otherwise scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are usually littered with munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds remain in our marine environments.

The locations of these munitions are poorly recorded, in part because of national borders, secret defense data and the fact that records are stored in old files. They present an explosion and safety hazard, as well as danger from the continuous leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states begin extracting these relics, researchers plan to preserve the habitats that have established in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

It would be wise to substitute these steel remains left from weapons with some more secure, some harmless structures, like maybe artificial reefs, states Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for replacing structures after explosive extraction in other locations – because even the most damaging weaponry can become scaffolding for marine organisms.