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

In the brackish waters off the German coast rests a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedoes and mines. Dumped from vessels at the end of the second world war and left behind, countless munitions have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a corroding blanket on the shallow, muddy seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the wartime weapons was ignored and neglected. A growing number of visitors flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for water sports, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Beneath the surface, the munitions eroded.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

When the first scientists went investigating to see what they were doing to the ecosystem, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all toxic, states Andrey Vedenin.

What they discovered surprised them. Vedenin remembers his scientists shouting with surprise when the underwater vehicle first relayed pictures. That moment was a memorable occasion, he says.

Countless of sea creatures had made their homes amid the explosives, developing a renewed habitat more populous than the seabed surrounding it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the tenacity of marine life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we find in locations that are expected to be hazardous and harmful, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had clustered on to one visible piece of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, detonator compartments and storage boxes just centimetres from its volatile core. Marine fish, crabs, anemones and bivalves were all found on the historic weapons. It resembles a marine reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, notes Vedenin.

Remarkable Creature Concentration

An average of more than forty thousand animals were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, scientists wrote in their paper on the discovery. The surrounding area was much poorer in life, with only 8,000 creatures on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that objects that are intended to destroy everything are attracting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. It's evident how nature adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in some way, life finds its way to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Structures as Ocean Habitats

Man-made features such as shipwrecks, wind turbines, drilling platforms and pipelines can offer replacements, replacing some of the removed habitat. This research demonstrates that munitions could be comparably beneficial – the proliferation of marine organisms on those in the Lübeck Bay is expected to be repeated in different areas.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6m tons of arms were disposed of off the Germany's coast. Thousands of people loaded them in barges; a portion were dropped in designated sites, the remainder just discarded at sea en route. This is the first time researchers have recorded how marine life has responded.

Global Examples of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, decommissioned energy installations have transformed into coral reefs
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become environments for creatures along the Potomac River in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become habitat to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more valuable for wildlife as the seas are increasingly depleted by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and munitions areas effectively serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but almost any kind of human activity is banned, says Vedenin. As a result a numerous of marine species that are otherwise scarce or diminishing, such as the Baltic cod, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Wherever armed conflict has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are typically strewn with weapons, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances remain in our oceans.

The positions of these explosives are inadequately recorded, partly because of sovereign limits, restricted military information and the situation that archives are hidden in old files. They pose an explosion and safety hazard, as well as danger from the continuous release of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states begin clearing these artifacts, researchers aim to safeguard the ecosystems that have formed nearby. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are currently being removed.

We should replace these iron structures originating from weapons with some less dangerous, some safe materials, like maybe concrete structures, suggests Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a model for substituting material after explosive extraction in other locations – because including the most harmful weaponry can become foundation for new life.