Nazi Munitions, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Dumped Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German shoreline lies a wasteland of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the end of the second world war and forgotten about, thousands explosives have become matted together over the years. They comprise a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

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

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team thought they would find a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. It was a great moment, he says.

Thousands of ocean life had established habitats on the weapons, creating a renewed habitat more populous than the sea floor around it.

This marine city was testament to the persistence of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are considered dangerous and harmful, he states.

Over 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were living on iron containers, detonator compartments and transport cases just a short distance from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the quantity of animal life that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An mean of more than 40,000 organisms were residing on every square metre of the weapons, scientists reported in their paper on the finding. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only 8,000 individuals on every meter squared.

It is surprising that things that are meant to kill all life are drawing so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life returns to the most risky locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can provide replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed habitat. This study reveals that explosives could be comparably positive – the explosion of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tons of arms were discarded off the German shoreline. Countless of workers loaded them in vessels; a portion were dropped in allocated sites, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance researchers have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

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

These places become even more important for wildlife as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites effectively function as sanctuaries – they are not official reserves, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is prohibited, states Vedenin. Therefore a lot of marine species that are otherwise scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Wherever warfare has occurred in the recent history, nearby oceans are often containing munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our marine environments.

The positions of these weapons are poorly mapped, partly because of sovereign limits, restricted defense data and the situation that archives are hidden in historical records. They pose an explosion and safety risk, as well as risk from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries begin removing these relics, researchers hope to preserve the marine communities that have established nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are currently being cleared.

We should substitute these metal carcasses originating from munitions with certain safer, various harmless structures, like maybe man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now aspires that what happens in Lübeck creates a model for replacing habitats after munitions removal elsewhere – because even the most harmful armaments can become scaffolding for marine organisms.