Nazi Munitions, Torpedoes and Mines: The Way Marine Life Flourishes on Abandoned Armaments

In the brackish sea off the German coast sits a wasteland of World War II explosives, torpedo heads and mines. Thrown off boats at the conclusion of the second world war and left behind, numerous explosives have fused into clusters over the years. They comprise a corroding layer on the shallow, silty ocean floor of the Bay of Lübeck in the western tip of the Baltic Sea.

Over the years, the Nazi arsenal was overlooked and forgotten about. A growing number of tourists flocked to the sandy beaches and calm waters for jetskiing, kiteboarding and entertainment venues. Underwater, the weapons eroded.

Researchers thought to see a desert, with no life because it was all poisoned, explains Andrey Vedenin.

When the team went investigating to see what they were affecting to the marine environment, the team thought they would find a barren area, with no life because it was all poisoned, states a scientist.

What they observed astonished them. Vedenin recounts his scientists exclaiming in amazement when the submersible first transmitted footage. It was a great moment, he recalls.

Numerous of marine animals had established habitats amid the explosives, forming a renewed habitat richer than the seabed nearby.

This marine city was evidence to the tenacity of marine life. It is actually remarkable how much marine organisms we discover in areas that are expected to be dangerous and risky, he explains.

More than 40 sea stars had piled on to one visible fragment of explosive material. They were living on steel casings, detonator compartments and transport cases just centimetres from its volatile core. Fish, crustaceans, sea anemones and bivalves were all observed on the historic weapons. It resembles a coral reef in terms of the quantity of creatures that was present, states Vedenin.

Surprising Creature Concentration

An mean of more than 40,000 creatures were dwelling on every square metre of the weapons, experts wrote in their paper on the finding. The adjacent region was much poorer in life, with only eight thousand individuals on every meter squared.

It is paradoxical that things that are meant to destroy all life are drawing so much marine organisms, explains Vedenin. One can observe how nature adjusts after a catastrophic event such as the second world war and how, in some way, life establishes itself to the most dangerous places.

Artificial Features as Ocean Habitats

Man-made constructions such as sunken vessels, offshore windfarms, oil rigs and undersea pipes can create alternatives, replacing some of the lost marine environment. This study reveals that explosives could be similarly positive – the proliferation of life on those in the Bay of Lübeck is expected to be repeated in different areas.

Between 1946 and the post-war period, 1.6 million tonnes of weapons were disposed of off the German shoreline. Countless of people placed them in vessels; a portion were placed in allocated areas, others just discarded at sea while traveling. This is the initial instance researchers have studied how ocean organisms has adapted.

Worldwide Instances of Marine Adaptation

• In the United States, retired oil and gas structures have transformed into reef ecosystems
• Shipwrecks from the first world war have become homes for marine life along the Potomac in Maryland
• Tank tracks that have become home to coral off Asan beach in the Pacific island

These areas become even more important for marine life as the seas are increasingly depleted by commercial fishing, seafloor dredging and boat mooring. Shipwrecks and munitions areas essentially act as refuges – they are not national parks, but almost any kind of human activity is restricted, states Vedenin. Therefore a numerous of species that are usually rare or decreasing, such as the cod fish, are flourishing.

Future Considerations

Anywhere armed conflict has taken place in the last century, surrounding seas are usually containing weapons, explains Vedenin. Millions of tonnes of explosive material remain in our seas.

The positions of these explosives are poorly documented, in part because of sovereign limits, classified military information and the fact that documents are buried in historic archives. They present an detonation and safety hazard, as well as risk from the ongoing emission of hazardous substances.

As Germany and different states start clearing these relics, scientists hope to safeguard the marine communities that have developed around them. In the Bay of Lübeck munitions are presently being cleared.

It would be wise to replace these steel remains left from weapons with certain safer, various non-dangerous structures, like maybe artificial reefs, suggests Vedenin.

He presently hopes that what happens in the Bay of Lübeck creates a example for replacing structures after munitions removal in different areas – because even the most harmful armaments can become framework for ocean ecosystems.