The International Mussel Watch 



Tasks Ahead: 

 Identification of Participating Scientists and Laboratories 



Close cooperation between academic scientists and international agencies is needed to 

 identify participants from the regions. A stimulus towards establishing a communicating network 

 could feasibly be provided by a meeting of the scientists on a region-by-region basis capitalizing on 

 planned regional activities and meetings (e.g. IOCARIBE, WESTPAC, CPPS, etc.). This would 

 provide a series of opportunities for all potential participating laboratories to consider the goals, 

 sampling strategies, site selection criteria, intercalibration exercises, and any assemblage of 

 production and use data that can obtained through discussions at such regional meetings. Such a 

 meeting was successfully held in Costa Rica in May 1991 in conjunction with a CEPPOL training 

 workshop. A directory of all participating laboratories and associated scientists will then be 

 assembled and at such meetings, the participating scientists will meet the IMW representatives to 

 set the stage for the field work. These meetings will also develop a list of needs of each country of 

 the region in the way of transportation costs to the collection sites, minor expenses in preparation 

 for the sample collection, and related activities. 



This approach may suggest, therefore, that implementation of the global program may be 

 staggered until these contacts have been established in each global region (i.e. implementation is 

 conducted on a sequential region by region basis). Further, during a sampling year, it is intended 

 to send to each country a representative of the International Mussel Watch Program to assist in the 

 sampling such that uniformity in techniques are achieved. 



As described above, this regional approach is being used for the first implementation 

 phase. At the organizational meeting in Costa Rica working scientists who were attending a 

 CEPPOL training workshop, together with IMW Committee members and participants from other 

 South American regional monitoring programs (i.e., CASO, South-west Atlantic region and 

 CPPS, eastern Pacific region) discussed the implementation of an international contamination 

 monitoring program. The overall Program structure has been shaped by previous meetings and the 

 discussions in Costa Rica focused on the implementation of a field program within this structure 

 (Fig.l). 





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