hydrocarbons are already being deposited in continental shelf areas off the 

 eastern United States before Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas drilling and 

 production have begun. This must be taken into account when assessing 

 potential environmental impacts of OCS operations, now and in the future. 



SUMMARY AND GENERAL DISCUSSION 



Aromatic hydrocarbons are incorporated into surface sediments as a result 

 of oil spills, and the chronic dribbling of urban air hydrocarbons into the 

 marine environment. These compounds are known to have adverse effects on 

 marine organisms under certain conditions. The challenge posed is to conduct 

 experiments which will investigate how bottom current resuspension, 

 bioturbation by animals, and long-term microbial and chemical processes act 

 individually and collectively on the aromatic hydrocarbons in surface 

 sediments. Are these compounds in the sediments incorporated into benthic 

 organisms? At what rate and under what conditions? We need to relate 

 chemical analyses by some means to biological availability. 



Some recent investigations conducted on a short-term two-week exposure of 

 sipunculid worms suggest that naphthalenes can be ingested from naphthalene 

 contaminated sediments (1). Two weeks of "depuration" in a clean 

 environment removed all measurable quantities of naphthalenes from the 

 worms (1). The exposure time was very short. What happens when exposure of 

 the benthic organism is continuous for years, as is probably the case for low 

 concentrations of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in Buzzards Bay, and 

 higlier concentrations near the New York Biglit area? 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I wish to thank R.A. Hites, R.E. LaFlamme, B.W. Tripp, N.M. Frew and J.M. 

 Teal for enjoyable collaboration and discussion of much of the research 

 discussed and referenced in this paper. This paper presents a synopsis of several 

 papers and acknowledgments to agencies providing financial support are found 

 in the referenced papers. 



The compilation of data and writing of this paper were supported by U.S. 

 Environmental Protection Agency Grant R803902. This paper is Contribution 

 Number 4041 of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 



REFERENCES 



I.Anderson, J.W., L.J. Moore, J.W. Blaylock, D.L. Woodruff and S.L. 

 Kiesser. 1977. Bioavailability of Sediment-Sorbed Naphthalenes to the 

 Sipunculid Worm, Phascolusuma agassizzii. Chapter 29 in Fate and Effects 



76 



