beginning to be drawn from annual 

 analyses of mussels and oysters. Look- 

 ing at trends over decadal and longer 

 time scales indicates that levels of most 

 contaminants measured in the NS&T 

 Program may be decreasing. Except 

 possibly for copper, there is little evi- 

 dence that they could be increasing. 



New Directions 



The NS&T Program is continuously 

 evaluating new ideas that could enhance 

 its value to the Nation. Already men- 

 tioned are efforts to identify subtle bio- 

 logical responses to contamination and 

 the program of collecting sediment cores 

 to construct chronologies of contami- 

 nant inputs. New chemicals have also 

 been added to those monitored by NOAA 

 through the NS&T Program. For ex- 

 ample, tri-, di-, and mono-butyl tin are 

 now measured in mussels and oysters. 

 Tributyl tin is a toxic chemical that was 

 often added to marine paints to serve as 

 an anti-foulant on the hulls of boats. 

 Because it has harmed marine life in 

 unintended ways, its use has been 

 severely restricted. Results of those re- 

 strictions should appear as decreasing 

 concentrations of tributyl tin and its break- 

 down products, di- and mono-butyl tin. 



A major test of NS&T results will be 

 derived from strong interagency coop- 

 eration with the U.S. Environmental 

 Protection Agency's recently inaugu- 

 rated Environmental Monitoring and 

 Assessment Program (EMAP). The Near 

 Coastal Component of that program 

 began in 1990 to collect and analyze 

 biological and sediment samples and 

 perform toxicity tests on sediment and 

 waterf rom about 200 randomly selected 

 estuarine sites between Chesapeake 

 Bay and Cape Cod. For the next few 



18 



years that sampling intensity will be 

 repeated at another set of randomly 

 chosen locations and, at the same time, 

 the program will expand to other parts of 

 the country. While many of the meas- 

 urements are common to both programs, 

 EMAP is based on random sampling 

 while NS&T is based on annual sam- 

 pling throughout the nation at fixed loca- 

 tions. Data from both programs will be 

 examined to test how well the NS&T 

 results actually represent conditions in 

 the estuarine and coastal United States. 



Participating Organizations 



The NS&T samples and data are gath- 

 ered through two major NOAA programs. 

 The Benthic Surveillance Program 

 began sampling fish and sediments in 

 1984. The Mussel Watch Program 

 started sampling mussels, oysters, and 

 sediments in 1986. The laboratories 

 that have performed Benthic Surveil- 

 lance activities are located at five sites: 

 the NOAA National Marine Fisheries 

 Service laboratories in Gloucester, MA; 

 Sandy Hook, NJ; Beaufort, NC; Char- 

 leston, SC; and Seattle, WA. The Mussel 

 Watch work has been performed at the 

 Battelle laboratories in Duxbury, MA, 

 and in Sequim, WA; the Texas A&M 

 University Geochemical and Environ- 

 mental Research Group in College 

 Station, TX; and the LaJolla, CA, labora- 

 tory of Scientific Applications Interna- 

 tional Corporation. 



Acknowledgements 



This report could not have been com- 

 pleted without contributions from innu- 

 merable people and organizations. The 

 several laboratories responsible for 

 collection and analysis of samples have 

 been mentioned. Members of the staff 



