Nazi Bombs, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Flourishes on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a collection of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, countless explosives have accumulated over the decades. They create a rusting blanket on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the munitions decayed.

Some of us expected to see a barren area, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, states the lead researcher.

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

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin remembers his scientists reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a great moment, he recalls.

Thousands of marine animals had settled on the munitions, creating a revitalized marine community richer than the sea floor around it.

This ocean community was evidence to the resilience of marine life. Truly surprising how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are considered dangerous and harmful, he says.

Over 40 sea stars had piled on to one exposed piece of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, sea anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the old munitions. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of creatures that was inhabiting the area, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were residing on every square metre of the weapons, researchers reported in their research on the observation. The surrounding area was much sparser, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are meant to destroy all life are attracting so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most risky locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Habitats

Artificial features such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, compensating for some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation shows that munitions could be comparably positive – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in other locations.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of weapons were discarded off the German coast. Countless of individuals transported them in boats; some were deposited in designated sites, the remainder just thrown overboard while traveling. This is the first time scientists have documented how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Examples of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan in Guam

These places become even more valuable for wildlife as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially act as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. Consequently a many of marine species that are usually rare or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever military conflict has taken place in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are usually littered with explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of dangerous substances lie in our oceans.

The sites of these weapons are inadequately mapped, partially because of international boundaries, secret armed forces records and the situation that archives are hidden in historical records. They create an detonation and security danger, as well as risk from the persistent leakage of hazardous substances.

As Germany and additional nations embark on clearing these artifacts, researchers plan to safeguard the habitats that have formed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being removed.

It would be wise to substitute these iron structures left from weapons with certain less dangerous, some safe structures, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He now wishes that what happens in Lübeck creates a example for substituting structures after explosive extraction in other locations – because also the most destructive explosives can become framework for ocean ecosystems.