Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Naval Mines: How Ocean Creatures Prosper on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the German shoreline lies a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and naval mines. Dumped from barges at the conclusion of the second world war and neglected, numerous weapons have become matted together over the decades. They create a decaying blanket on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Lübeck Bay in the western part of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the explosive stockpile was ignored and neglected. A increasing amount of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kite surfing and amusement parks. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

Some of us expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, some of us anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, says the lead researcher.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recounts his team members exclaiming in amazement when the ROV first sent the images back. That moment was a memorable occasion, he notes.

Countless of ocean life had made their homes among the munitions, creating a regenerated marine community more populous than the ocean bottom surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much life we observe in locations that are supposed to be toxic and dangerous, he explains.

More than 40 starfish had clustered on to one exposed chunk of explosive material. They were residing on metal shells, ignition chambers and carrying containers just a short distance from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the abundance of animal life that was there, says Vedenin.

Remarkable Population Density

An average of more than forty thousand creatures were residing on every meter squared of the munitions, experts documented in their study on the finding. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only 8,000 individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are designed to destroy everything are drawing so much life, states Vedenin. You can see how the natural world adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the World War II and how, in some way, marine life establishes itself to the most hazardous areas.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made structures such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, oil rigs and pipelines can offer alternatives, restoring some of the removed habitat. This research reveals that explosives could be similarly beneficial – the bloom of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is probable to be duplicated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of arms were disposed of off the German coast. Numerous of people loaded them in boats; some were deposited in designated sites, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the initial instance researchers have documented how marine life has reacted.

Global Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, decommissioned drilling platforms have become reef ecosystems
• Sunken ships from the World War I have become environments for wildlife along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in Guam

These locations become even more valuable for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites practically function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but virtually any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. As a result a lot of organisms that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the Baltic cod, are prospering.

Coming Factors

Wherever warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, adjacent waters are typically containing munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of explosive material lie in our oceans.

The locations of these munitions are poorly recorded, in part because of national borders, secret armed forces records and the situation that documents are hidden in old files. They create an explosion and safety risk, as well as threat from the continuous leakage of toxic chemicals.

As the German government and other countries begin removing these artifacts, researchers aim to safeguard the ecosystems that have developed in their vicinity. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are presently being extracted.

It would be wise to substitute these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with some less dangerous, some safe structures, like perhaps man-made habitats, suggests Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for replacing material after munitions removal elsewhere – because also the most destructive weaponry can become scaffolding for ocean ecosystems.