Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Abandoned Weapons

In the brackish waters off the German coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, countless weapons have accumulated over the years. They form a decaying blanket on the shallow, silty seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists traveled to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

Researchers anticipated to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states a scientist.

When the team went looking to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains the lead researcher.

What they observed amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he says.

Thousands of ocean life had settled among the weapons, developing a revitalized marine community richer than the sea floor around it.

This underwater metropolis was testament to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in locations that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 sea stars had gathered on to one accessible chunk of TNT. They were dwelling on iron containers, detonator compartments and storage boxes just a short distance from its volatile core. Marine fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all discovered on the historic weapons. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 organisms were living on every square metre of the munitions, scientists wrote in their research on the observation. The surrounding area was much less diverse, with only 8,000 creatures on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are designed to destroy all life are attracting so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most hazardous locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can offer substitutes, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This investigation shows that explosives could be comparably advantageous – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of munitions were discarded off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people loaded them in vessels; a portion were placed in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard en route. This is the first time researchers have documented how marine life has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the World War I have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These locations become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations effectively function as refuges – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a many of species that are usually scarce or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Factors

Wherever military conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are typically littered with explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tons of volatile compounds remain in our seas.

The locations of these weapons are inadequately mapped, in part because of national borders, restricted military information and the fact that documents are stored in historic archives. They pose an detonation and security danger, as well as risk from the ongoing release of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states embark on removing these artifacts, researchers hope to protect the habitats that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being extracted.

We should replace these metal carcasses left from munitions with some less dangerous, various harmless objects, like perhaps concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what transpires in the Bay of Lübeck establishes a example for replacing structures after munitions removal in different areas – because also the most damaging weaponry can become framework for new life.