Appendix E: Field Scientist Report 



of sampling. The Field Scientist should also be given guidelines as to when a sampling site 

 should be scrubbed for logistic/safety reasons. 



No matter how carefully sampling sites are pre-selected, a myriad of problems will be faced 

 by the Field Scientist in the field. The Field Scientist must be experienced enough to be able to 

 make intelligent choices in the field and be given enough freedom to make field decisions without 

 further authorization from the Project Secretariat or other program component. Guidelines 

 provided to the Field Scientist for this phase should be used in other global regions and should be 

 expanded to include safety/logistics guidance as well. 



Systematically recorded geographic location information would be a useful component of 

 the global database and this information should be included in the sampling effort. The Field 

 Scientist should be issued a hand-held GPS receiver to record the geographic location of each site. 



This initial phase was a success because many people freely gave of their time and energy 

 without hesitation. The contracts which financially supported this effort covered only the essential 

 basic direct costs incurred and were a small fraction of the total effort made. If this attitude is 

 carried over to the other global regions, the International Mussel Watch will continue to be 

 successful . 



Dr Jose Sericano 



GERG 



Texas A&M University 



College Station, TX 



22 



