Nazi Explosives, Torpedo Heads and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Dumped Armaments

In the slightly salty sea off the Germany's shoreline lies a graveyard of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Discarded from vessels at the end of the second world war and neglected, countless weapons have accumulated over the decades. They create a corroding blanket on the low-depth, silty seafloor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and neglected. A growing number of visitors came to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Below the waves, the weapons decayed.

We initially thought to see a barren area, with nothing living there because it was all contaminated, states Andrey Vedenin.

When the initial researchers went looking to see what they were affecting to the ecosystem, some of us anticipated finding a lifeless zone, with no organisms because it was all contaminated, says Andrey Vedenin.

What they found amazed them. Vedenin recalls his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first transmitted footage. That moment was a memorable occasion, he recalls.

Thousands of ocean life had settled amid the munitions, developing a revitalized ecosystem denser than the seabed surrounding it.

This marine city was proof to the resilience of life. Truly remarkable how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are expected to be toxic and harmful, he states.

Over 40 starfish had gathered on to one accessible piece of explosive material. They were dwelling on steel casings, detonator compartments and carrying containers just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, anemones and bivalves were all observed on the historic weapons. You could compare it with a reef ecosystem in terms of the abundance of animal life that was present, notes Vedenin.

Unexpected Population Density

An mean of more than forty thousand organisms were dwelling on every square metre of the explosives, researchers wrote in their study on the discovery. The nearby seabed was much sparser, with only eight thousand organisms on every square metre.

It is paradoxical that things that are designed to destroy all life are hosting so much marine organisms, states Vedenin. One can observe how nature adapts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most risky areas.

Artificial Structures as Marine Habitats

Man-made constructions such as shipwrecks, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can provide substitutes, restoring some of the lost habitat. This investigation demonstrates that munitions could be similarly advantageous – the proliferation of life on those in the Lübeck Bay is likely to be repeated in other locations.

Between the late 1940s and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Thousands of workers loaded them in vessels; a portion were deposited in allocated locations, others just thrown overboard during transport. This is the first time experts have documented how ocean organisms has responded.

Global Examples of Ocean Adaptation

• In the US, decommissioned energy installations have turned into coral reefs
• Submerged vessels from the first world war have become habitats for creatures along the Potomac River in the state of Maryland
• Military vehicle parts that have become environment to coral off Asan beach in Guam

These areas become even more valuable for wildlife as the marine environments are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, bottom trawling and anchoring. Shipwrecks and weapons dump sites essentially function as protected areas – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of anthropogenic disturbance is restricted, explains Vedenin. As a result a lot of marine species that are usually rare or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are prospering.

Future Considerations

Wherever warfare has happened in the recent history, adjacent waters are usually containing munitions, states Vedenin. Many millions of tons of dangerous substances rest in our oceans.

The sites of these explosives are poorly documented, in part because of international boundaries, secret military information and the situation that archives are stored in historic archives. They create an detonation and security hazard, as well as risk from the persistent release of poisonous compounds.

As the German government and additional nations begin clearing these relics, experts aim to preserve the habitats that have established around them. In the Bay of Lübeck weapons are already being cleared.

We should substitute these steel remains remaining from weapons with some less dangerous, various non-dangerous structures, like maybe concrete structures, says Vedenin.

He currently hopes that what occurs in Lübeck sets a model for substituting structures after weapon clearance in other locations – because also the most damaging explosives can become framework for new life.