422 



out where the original data is, and then see how we can apply it 

 to trying to understand the extent of the problems. 



The next map that I'll show gives an indication of what the pro- 

 ductivity is like on the sea floor on the Bsirents Sea. You can see 

 here on this lower comer the area where the most extensive dump- 

 ing has occurred, located on the west side of Novaya Zemlya. It's 

 the most highly productive area in the Barents Sea. This map 

 shows the distribution of benthic biomass. It was put together in 

 1963, and this is interesting because it probably was put together 

 based on data that was collected before much of the dumping oc- 

 curred. This means that perhaps we have baseline information 

 here that we can use to see the effects of dumping activities, if we 

 can get back to the original data. 



Now as I mentioned in my opening statement, what the EDF is 

 doing right now is putting together a multimedia approach to try 

 to understand the Arctic environment and the threats to it. What 

 you can see here in this oval-shaped delineation is the area of the 

 Arctic that's affected by Arctic haze during the wintertime. This is 

 the Arctic air mass that Glenn Shaw had talked about before. Any 

 pollutants that are put into this air mass during the wintertime 

 have the possibility of being transported throughout the entire Arc- 

 tic, so we're linked whether we like it or not. What you see here 

 in this hook shape is a pulse of highly polluted air that was re- 

 leased from Europe and was transported across the Arctic within 

 five days. This gives you an indication of just how closely we're 

 linked to Siberia and Eastern Europe. What you see in green is an 

 area that may be influenced by ozone depletion in the future. It's 

 an area that's particularly susceptible to ozone depletion. The areas 

 in pink show where acid rain has already substantially affected the 

 ground, acidifying the lakes and the lands. And in the areas that 

 I have marked in yellow, you can see places where the fallout from 

 acid rain, a wide variety of contaminants and also of Arctic haze, 

 could be affecting the marine ecosystems. 



Superimposed on all this, of course, we have the potential threat 

 of stresses to the Arctic environment from global w£irming. In addi- 

 tion, I've marked in black here some Russian rivers that we've 

 heard are incredibly contaminated with a wide variety of materials, 

 including PCB's, bacteria, dioxin and DDT. Now what will happen 

 to these pollutants when they enter the Arctic ecosystem? The sur- 

 face water salinity that I show here is once again from a Russian 

 atlas, this was pubUshed in 1980. And here along the boundary of 

 Siberia you can see the extent of influence of the Russian rivers in 

 the coastal areas msirked in yellow. What you see is that the Rus- 

 sian rivers contribute to changing the salinity of the coastal seas. 

 This meEins that any pollution that's transported with the rivers 

 has the potential to affect these wide shelf seas that are adjacent 

 to some of the most productive seas in the world. 



Now could this pollution eventually be transported towards Alas- 

 ka? Again, the same Russian source, you can see this very busy 

 map. Now one reason I chose the Russian data is to give you an 

 indication of the wealth of information that is potentially stored in 

 the former Soviet Union that we have to work hard to ferret out. 

 But you can see here, in the same area meirked in yellow before, 

 a coastal current that's transporting water along the northern msir- 



