VI-109 



of the lack of positive knowledge of the quantitative require- 

 ments for marsh, as well as other estuarine environments as 

 nursery and habitat areas for fish and wildlife and for other 

 purposes. Substantial research must be devoted to this question, 

 meanwhile attempting to preserve marsh and other coastal regions 

 to the greatest extent possible through influence on permits for 

 dredging, filling, draining, or other modifications of estuarine zones, 



An extension of the study of necessary habitats would be to 

 determine in quantitative terms, the importance of the estuary 

 as a soawnlnq area, and then its importance as a nursery 

 area. These data on life cycle events, population dynamics, 

 food chains, nursery, habitat, soawning area values, may exist 

 already in one form or another, but they are certainly not 

 generally available. They need to be drawn together in a way 

 so that they can be used by the resource manager. 



WATER QUALITY CONSIDERATIONS 



As indicated in the discussion on baseline studies, it is essen- 

 tial to have a full knowledge of the characteristics of the 

 receiving waters in the development of a realistic program for 

 pollution control and water quality management. In most cases, 

 the pollutional control characteristics are unknown for the 

 various estuarine areas. These characteristics need to be 

 established for each estuary. While some basic data concerning 



