Overview

• ROV surveys in Lübeck Bay recorded roughly 43,000 organisms per square meter on munitions versus about 8,200 on surrounding sediment.
• Explosive compounds in adjacent water ranged from 30 nanograms to 2.7 milligrams per liter, and seven of nine objects were degraded with some exposing bare explosive material that lacked visible life.
• Most epifauna clustered on metal carcasses and transport parts, indicating many species favor the scarce hard surfaces even with contamination present.
• Study authors recommend replacing hazardous munitions with inert hard substrates to retain habitat without ongoing chemical leakage, with next steps to assess contamination uptake and reproduction in resident species.
• A companion study mapped Maryland’s World War I “Ghost Fleet” at Mallows Bay, creating baseline imagery to monitor changing coastal and aquatic habitats.