CHAPTER 16 



Recommendation 1 — Continue to monitor D.O. in bot- 

 tom waters, plankton populations, and related physical- 

 chemical properties to detect D.O. concentrations, rates of 

 decline during the critical spring-summer period, and the 

 potential for severe oxygen depletion . 



Results of monitoring can be used to warn of possible 

 mass mortalities. A monitoring plan is proposed for the 

 New York Bight (Swanson et al., in press). 



Recommendation 2 — Refine monitoring and predicting 

 techniques (including models of CIOIN cycles), develop 

 both short-term predictive capabilities and long-term de- 

 termination of trends {including variability or probability 

 of n-year events), and improve coordination of services 

 which include the needs of socioeconomic and regional 

 resource management systems. 



Recommendation 3 — Investigate the feasibility of har- 

 vesting and processing the fishery resource in the event of 

 anticipated mass mortalities, in conjunction with shellfish- 

 ing industries, and Middle Atlantic and New England Fish- 

 eries Councils. 



Recommendation 4 — Increase emphasis on further 

 understanding of natural variability in marine ecosystems 

 and its relation to human influences. 



Criteria must be developed that reflect variance as well 

 as mean conditions. It is typical to consider coastal waters 

 as being so vast that they can accommodate any use we 

 might perceive, to design systems to manage the coastal 

 marine environment based on mean conditions, and to 

 assume that mean conditions prevail without adequately 

 studying the departures from the mean. For example, res- 

 idence times based on steady-state conditions and calcu- 

 lated from data that reflect long-term integration are often 

 used. They reflect integrated measures of advective re- 

 newal of water (and associated properties) over a region, 

 when all parts of the region probably do not share equally 

 in the renewal. Whereas meteorologists and hydrologists 

 use safety factors when designing for 100-year storms and 



low- and peak-flow conditions, oceanographers and ocean 

 engineers often treat similar problems, including those 

 relating to pollution, without considering such long-term 

 variance in their design criteria. 



REFERENCES 



Bumpus, D. F., 1969. Reversals in surface drift in the Middle Atlantic 

 Bight Area. Deep-Sea Res 16:17-2,^ 



Garside. C, and Malone, T. C, 1978. Monthly oxygen and carbon 

 budgets of the New York Bight Apex. Estuar. Coastal Mar. Sci. 

 6:93-104. 



National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 1976. Evaluation of 

 proposed sewage sludge dumpsite areas in the New York Bight. 

 NOAA Tech. Memo. ERL MESA-11 Environmental Research 

 Laboratories, Boulder, Colo., 212 pp. 



OConnor.D. J.Thomann.R. V.andSalas.H. J.. 1977. Water Quality, 

 MESA .Vevi' York Bight Atlas Monogr. 11. New York Sea Grant 

 Institute. Albany, N.Y.. 104 pp. 



Patchcn. R. C. Long, E. E. and Parker. B. B.. 1976. Analysis of current 

 meter observations in the New York Bight Apex. August 1973-June 

 1974. NOAA Tech. Rep ERL 36S-MESA 5. Environmental Re- 

 search Laboratories, Boulder. Colo., 24 pp. 



Reid, R. N.. and Radosh. D. J.. 1979. Benthic macrofaunal recovery 

 after the 1976 hypoxia off New Jersey, Coastal Oceanography and 

 Climatology News l(3):35-36. 



Segar, D. A., and Berberian, G. A., 1976. Oxygen depletion in the New 

 York Bight Apex: causes and consequences, in M. G. Gross (ed.). 

 Middle Atlantic Continental Shelf and New York Bight. Amer. Soc. 

 Limnol. Oceanogr. Spec. Symp. 2:22(.>-239. 



Swanson. R. L.. Stanford, H. M , Parker. C. A.. Goodrich. D M.. 

 O'Connor, J. S. andChanesman. S . in press A monitoring strategy 

 for the New York Bight 



Thomas. J. P., Phoel. W. C. Steimle. F W. OReilly. J E. and Evans, 

 C. A., 1976. Seabed oxygen consumption in the New York Bight 

 Apex, in M. G. Gross (ed.). Middle Atlantic Continental Shelf and 

 New York Bight, Amer. Soc. Umnol. Oceanogr. Spec. Symp. 

 2:354-369, 



Walsh, J. J.. Falkowski. P. G., and Hopkins. J. S.. in preparation. 

 Oxygen depletion within the New York Bight as a function of cli- 

 matology and phvtoplankton species succession. 



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