The International Mussel Watch 



scientists (Appendix A) under the auspices of the Scientific Committee for Problems of the 

 Environment (S.C.O.P.E.) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (I.C.S.U.); UNEP, 

 and IOC-UNESCO at the East-West Center, Hawaii, U.S.A. in November, 1983 provided further 

 assessment and recommended planning for the implementation of an International Mussel Watch 

 Program (Peterson and Tripp, 1984; Sivalingam, 1984). The deliberations and recommendations 

 of these two meetings led to the design of the present International Mussel Watch Program. 



Lessons learned from the previous Mussel Watch monitoring programs include the need for 

 stringent data quality control and quality assurance practices, the need for common methods of 

 sampling, preservation and analysis, and involvement in intercalibration exercises by all 

 participating laboratories. The ability to carry out the collection, analysis and interpretation of the 

 data in its inter-regional and global contexts, however, does not yet exist in some developing 

 regions of the world. 



The Present Problem 



The continuous introduction of both old and new potentially harmful chemicals to the 

 marine environment, through river discharges, effluent dumping releases, land run-off and 

 atmospheric deposition, requires a sustainable capacity to obtain reliable relevant data for most 

 regions in order to protect human health and manage wisely valuable living resources of the worlds 

 coasts. This capacity will be developed through this proposed program. 



The solution to the pesticide impact on ecosystems in most northern hemisphere countries 

 was a ban or regulation of use and production of persistent biocides. This path may not be 

 appropriate to many of the developing countries of the world for economic and public health 

 reasons. Instead, a controlled use of these pesticides along with other pest control measures such 

 as integrated pest management (IPM) is a rational course to follow. Education in the use of 

 biocides, coupled with the introduction of complementary strategies, will be required. An 

 important ingredient towards solution of this problem is the accumulation of substantial data on 

 present day build-up of persistent biocides in the marine environment. 



The importance and priority of this project has been recognized by two agencies within the 

 United Nations. The Sixth Session of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's (IOC) 

 Scientific Committee on the Global Investigation of Pollution in the Marine Environment 

 (GIPME), (Paris, October, 1986) endorsed the proposal to establish a Global Monitoring Program 

 for the detection of organochlorine pesticide residues in sentinel bivalves, i.e. the International 

 "Mussel Watch" (IMW). Further, it recommended that a Steering Committee be convened to draw 

 up an acceptable plan of action to conduct such a program and invited the United Nations 



1 1 



