Nazi Explosives, Torpedoes and Mines: How Marine Life Prosper on Abandoned Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline rests a collection of Nazi bombs, torpedoes and mines. Discarded from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and forgotten about, countless munitions have become matted together over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the coastal areas and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

Some of us thought to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were doing to the marine environment, some of us thought they would find a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states the lead researcher.

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

Countless of marine animals had settled amid the weapons, forming a regenerated marine community denser than the seabed around it.

This ocean community was proof to the resilience of marine life. Indeed remarkable how much life we discover in areas that are supposed to be toxic and harmful, he explains.

Over 40 starfish had piled on to one visible chunk of TNT. They were residing on iron containers, detonator compartments and storage boxes just a short distance from its explosive filling. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the amount of creatures that was inhabiting the area, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were residing on every square metre of the explosives, researchers documented in their paper on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much less diverse, with only eight thousand creatures on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to destroy everything are attracting so much life, explains Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adapts after a major disaster such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, life establishes itself to the most hazardous areas.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and pipelines can provide substitutes, restoring some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation reveals that explosives could be equally beneficial – the explosion of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6m tonnes of arms were dumped off the Germany's shoreline. Countless of individuals loaded them in boats; some were deposited in allocated areas, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the initial instance scientists have documented how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the United States, decommissioned oil and gas structures have turned into reef ecosystems
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more important for marine life as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and anchoring. Shipwrecks and explosive disposal locations practically function as refuges – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a lot of marine species that are otherwise uncommon or diminishing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Wherever military conflict has happened in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are usually littered with explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our seas.

The positions of these explosives are insufficiently recorded, partly because of international boundaries, secret military information and the reality that archives are stored in old files. They present an detonation and security risk, as well as risk from the ongoing release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and other countries embark on clearing these remains, researchers plan to preserve the habitats that have developed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are presently being extracted.

Researchers recommend replace these iron structures left from munitions with certain more secure, some safe objects, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He now aspires that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a precedent for replacing material after weapon clearance in different areas – because even the most damaging armaments can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.