Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Ocean Creatures Thrives on Abandoned Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline rests a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, numerous explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They form a corroding blanket on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of tourists came to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons deteriorated.

Researchers thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all poisoned, says a scientist.

When the team went searching to see what they were doing to the marine environment, the team anticipated finding a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, explains the lead researcher.

What they discovered astonished them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. This was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Countless of ocean life had established habitats amid the munitions, creating a renewed habitat denser than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the resilience of life. Truly remarkable how much life we observe in locations that are expected to be toxic and risky, he says.

Over 40 starfish had gathered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were dwelling on metal shells, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all observed on the discarded explosives. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, experts wrote in their paper on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are designed to kill all life are hosting so much marine organisms, says Vedenin. It's evident how nature adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Man-made Structures as Ocean Environments

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and undersea pipes can offer alternatives, replacing some of the removed marine environment. This study shows that weapons could be similarly positive – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Numerous of people loaded them in boats; some were placed in allocated sites, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more crucial for marine life as the oceans are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites practically act as sanctuaries – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. As a result a many of organisms that are otherwise uncommon or declining, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Issues

Wherever warfare has happened in the past 100 years, surrounding seas are usually containing munitions, says Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our marine environments.

The locations of these weapons are poorly recorded, in part because of sovereign limits, secret defense data and the reality that documents are buried in old files. They present an detonation and safety risk, as well as danger from the ongoing leakage of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries begin extracting these artifacts, experts hope to safeguard the marine communities that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay explosives are presently being removed.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains originating from munitions with some more secure, various harmless materials, like maybe man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He now aspires that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a model for substituting habitats after weapon clearance in other locations – because including the most harmful weaponry can become scaffolding for new life.