Nazi Bombs, Torpedo Heads and Mines: How Ocean Creatures Flourishes on Dumped Weapons

In the slightly salty sea off the German coast sits a graveyard of Nazi bombs, torpedo heads and naval mines. Thrown off vessels at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, thousands munitions have accumulated over the decades. They form a decaying layer on the low-depth, muddy seafloor of the Lübeck Bay in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the wartime weapons was ignored and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and tranquil sea for jetskiing, kite surfing and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons deteriorated.

Some of us anticipated to see a lifeless zone, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went looking to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team expected to see a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recounts his scientists reacting with shock when the underwater vehicle first sent the images back. That moment was a memorable occasion, he says.

Numerous of ocean life had settled among the munitions, forming a revitalized habitat richer than the ocean bottom around it.

This underwater metropolis was proof to the persistence of life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we observe in locations that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he says.

In excess of 40 starfish had piled on to one exposed fragment of explosive material. They were living on metal shells, ignition chambers and carrying containers just centimetres from its explosive filling. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and mussels were all discovered on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a marine reef in terms of the abundance of fauna that was there, notes Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An average of more than 40,000 animals were dwelling on every meter squared of the explosives, researchers documented in their research on the discovery. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every square metre.

It is surprising that things that are intended to destroy everything are drawing so much life, says Vedenin. It's evident how the natural world adjusts after a devastating occurrence such as the second world war and how, in certain respects, marine life returns to the most risky locations.

Man-made Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, wind turbines, drilling platforms and undersea pipes can provide replacements, replacing some of the destroyed marine environment. This investigation demonstrates that weapons could be comparably positive – the bloom of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is likely to be duplicated elsewhere.

Between 1946 and 1948, 1.6m tonnes of arms were disposed of off the Germany's shoreline. Thousands of workers placed them in boats; a portion were placed in allocated locations, others just dumped during transport. This is the first time experts have recorded how marine life has adapted.

Global Examples of Marine Transformation

• In the United States, retired energy installations have turned into marine habitats
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to reef-building organisms off Asan in Guam

These places become even more valuable for organisms as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Sunken ships and weapons dump sites essentially serve as protected areas – they are not national parks, but nearly any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is banned, states Vedenin. Consequently a many of species that are typically uncommon or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are thriving.

Future Factors

Wherever armed conflict has happened in the recent history, nearby oceans are typically littered with munitions, explains Vedenin. Many millions of tonnes of volatile compounds lie in our marine environments.

The sites of these weapons are poorly recorded, in part because of sovereign limits, restricted defense data and the situation that documents are hidden in old files. They create an detonation and security hazard, as well as danger from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations embark on extracting these artifacts, scientists plan to preserve the marine communities that have developed in their vicinity. In the Bay of Lübeck explosives are currently being extracted.

It would be wise to replace these metal carcasses remaining from weapons with certain less dangerous, various safe materials, like possibly concrete structures, states Vedenin.

He currently wishes that what occurs in Lübeck sets a model for substituting habitats after explosive extraction in other locations – because including the most damaging weaponry can become framework for new life.