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SECTION 3. REVIEWS OF CASE STUDIES OF USES 

 OF THE ESTUARINE ENVIRONMENT 



The preceding section discussed separately some important 

 estuarine uses and showed how the calculable economic estimates 

 fell short of showing the actual value of each use. This Section 

 describes several estuarine systems as socioeconomic environments 

 to show how the use balance in each may differ from the others and 

 how one use may dominate all others. 



Almost all estuarine systems have either a multiplicity of uses at 

 the present time or such uses are available in the system. 

 Estuaries presently support such varied uses as military berthing 

 and associated activities, commercial port facilities, shipping 

 channels, industrial uses, commercial fisheries, sport fishing, 

 recreation, wildlife habitat, and purely aesthetic purposes. In 

 most estuaries one or two of the uses predominate while the others 

 take minor roles. 



It is, however, important to understand that estuarine uses are not 

 mutually exclusive and that with sufficient planning and caution, 

 these uses can exist in harmony with one another. In fact, in 

 order to receive the maximum return from a natural resource such as 

 an estuary, all of the uses of the specialized environment should 

 be developed to the maximum with the detrimental uses minimized. 



Minimizing detrimental uses does not, in most cases, mean that the 

 major activity must be stopped. Rather, it means that for most 



