VI-135 



becomes desirable to control these natural changes. It is certainly 

 necessary to recognize them as factors affecting management of 

 natural resources. It must be borne in mind that bacteria themselves 

 are an exceedingly valuable prey species as well as is the phytoplank- 

 ton whose development is made possible by the mineralization activity 

 of bacteria. 



The Use of Indicator Bacteria 



In order to assess biological contamination and potential health 

 hazards in estuaries, adequate bacterial assay techniques are 

 necessary. The use of indicator bacteria, mainly fecal colifomis, 

 is the major and most widely used detection system. Current 

 water quality criteria for contact recreational waters place 

 emphasis on fecal coliform data and consider this group to be a more 

 realistic indicator than total coliforms of the presence of patho- 

 . genie microorganisms. It has been the practice to utilize techniques 

 that are workable for fresh water systems. As a result, the widely 

 accepted rapid MF (membrane filter) fecal coliform procedure is being 

 used for salt water bacterial analyses. Only recently have attempts 

 been made to assess and verify the reliability of such MF techniques 

 for bacterial assay in salt v^ater. Apparently, interferences and 

 factors associated with the saline environment cause coliforms and 

 pathogenic microorganisms to behave differently than when in fresh 



