Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Thrives on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty waters off the Germany's shoreline sits a collection of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and naval mines. Dumped from vessels at the conclusion of the World War II and left behind, thousands weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They comprise a corroding layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the decades, the Nazi arsenal was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of visitors came to the coastal areas and tranquil sea for water sports, kiteboarding and amusement parks. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Researchers anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all toxic, says the lead researcher.

When the team went investigating 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 toxic, says a scientist.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his team members reacting with shock when the ROV first transmitted footage. That moment was a great moment, he notes.

Thousands of ocean life had established habitats amid the munitions, developing a renewed ecosystem denser than the sea floor nearby.

This ocean community was testament to the resilience of marine life. Truly astonishing how much marine organisms we discover in places that are considered toxic and dangerous, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were residing on metal shells, fuse pockets and carrying containers just a short distance from its dangerous content. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all found on the old munitions. It's similar to a coral reef in terms of the quantity of fauna that was there, states Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand organisms were living on every meter squared of the weapons, scientists documented in their study on the observation. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 organisms on every meter squared.

It is surprising that objects that are meant to eliminate all life are drawing so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. You can see how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most risky areas.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Artificial structures such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can provide replacements, compensating for some of the destroyed habitat. This investigation demonstrates that explosives could be equally advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be found elsewhere.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of munitions were discarded off the German shoreline. Thousands of individuals transported them in boats; a portion were placed in allocated areas, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become coral reefs
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become homes for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to coral off Asan in the Pacific island

These places become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly stripped by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations practically serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, says Vedenin. Therefore a lot of species that are otherwise scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Coming Issues

Anywhere armed conflict has occurred in the last century, surrounding seas are usually littered with explosives, explains Vedenin. Millions of tons of explosive material rest in our seas.

The locations of these munitions are inadequately recorded, partly because of national borders, restricted armed forces records and the fact that documents are stored in historical records. They create an explosion and safety hazard, as well as risk from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As Germany and additional nations begin removing these artifacts, experts aim to safeguard the marine communities that have formed nearby. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are currently being cleared.

Researchers recommend replace these metal carcasses left from munitions with some less dangerous, various non-dangerous objects, like perhaps man-made habitats, says Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what occurs in Lübeck creates a precedent for replacing structures after weapon clearance elsewhere – because also the most harmful explosives can become framework for new life.