IV-446 



water, the use of fresh estuarine waters for water supplies may 

 become an important estuarine water use. Fresh waters in the 

 estuarine zone occur near where the rivers reach sea level, and 

 it is here at the natural head of navigation that many of the 

 large ports are located and discharge their wastes. 



Commercial Fishing 



Some kinds of commercial fishing require the use of trawls or the 

 setting of traps or nets that must be left for some time. The use 

 of such devices restricts other uses while the devices are in place, 

 but there is no permanent appropriation of estuarine waters or space. 

 The major conflict is with recreation in that recreational boating 

 must be excluded from areas where fishing gear is near the surface. 



Shellfishing is restrictive in the sense that commercial oyster and 

 clam beds require the waters above them to be of far better aualitv 

 than is required for safe body contact. This has been a significant 

 impact un to the present only in that waste treatment requirements 

 of some municipal and industrial wastes have had to be set hiqher 

 than would otherwise be necessary. With increasing numbers of 

 watercraft in estuarine waters the potential additional human wastes 

 from these boats may require restriction of some waters to recre- 

 ational traffic in order to protect shellfish beds. 



