Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Prosper on Discarded Weapons

In the brackish sea off the German shoreline lies a collection of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the World War II and neglected, countless weapons have fused into clusters over the decades. They form a rusting layer on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western part of the Baltic.

Over the decades, the explosive stockpile was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of tourists traveled to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and amusement parks. Beneath the surface, the weapons decayed.

Researchers thought to see a lifeless zone, with no life because it was all contaminated, explains the lead researcher.

When the initial researchers went searching to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, researchers expected to see a desert, with no organisms because it was all toxic, explains a scientist.

What they discovered amazed them. Vedenin remembers his team members shouting with surprise when the ROV first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he says.

Numerous of ocean life had established habitats among the explosives, developing a renewed habitat denser than the ocean bottom nearby.

This marine city was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in areas that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed fragment of TNT. They were dwelling on steel casings, fuse pockets and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crabs, anemones and mussels were all discovered on the discarded explosives. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was inhabiting the area, states Vedenin.

Unexpected Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 creatures were living on every meter squared of the explosives, experts reported in their research on the finding. The nearby seabed was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that items that are designed to destroy everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. You can see how nature adapts after a devastating occurrence such as the World War II and how, in certain respects, marine life finds its way to the most hazardous locations.

Man-made Features as Marine Environments

Man-made features such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, replacing some of the lost habitat. This study demonstrates that munitions could be comparably advantageous – the bloom of marine organisms on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be found in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and 1948, 1.6 million tons of weapons were dumped off the Germany's coast. Numerous of workers transported them in barges; some were dropped in allocated sites, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the initial instance experts have documented how marine life has reacted.

Worldwide Instances of Ocean Transformation

• In the US, retired drilling platforms have become marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the World War I have become environments for marine life along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to reef-building organisms off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more valuable for marine life as the oceans are increasingly stripped by fishing, bottom trawling and boat mooring. Sunken ships and explosive disposal locations essentially serve as protected areas – they are not official reserves, but nearly any kind of human activity is prohibited, explains Vedenin. Consequently a numerous of marine species that are typically scarce or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Factors

Wherever warfare has occurred in the past 100 years, nearby oceans are typically strewn with explosives, states Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of volatile compounds rest in our marine environments.

The sites of these explosives are insufficiently documented, partially because of sovereign limits, restricted armed forces records and the fact that documents are buried in old files. They pose an detonation and security risk, as well as danger from the ongoing emission of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and other countries start clearing these artifacts, researchers hope to preserve the habitats that have developed around them. In the Lübeck Bay munitions are already being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these iron structures originating from weapons with some more secure, various safe materials, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He presently wishes that what occurs in Lübeck establishes a example for substituting structures after explosive extraction elsewhere – because including the most destructive explosives can become foundation for new life.