E\ aluation of Estuarine Data 

 Joseph J. Graham 



This project evaluates existing data to decide on future estuarine 

 research. As a first step, a study of the literature and unpublished data on 

 Gulf estuaries is underway. Secondly, plans and field operations of minor 

 and major engineering projects are being studied. Minor projects are con- 

 cerned primarily with small dredging and filling operations; major projects 

 involve water development, flood and hurricane protection, and dredging of 

 waterways. Considerable attention is given to those projects which utilize 

 models to predict the effects of artificial alterations in certain estuaries. A 

 seminar on model studies at the Waterways Experiment Station at Vicksburg, 

 Mississippi, was attended. 



One major problem is disposal of spoil from channel dredging so 

 as not to seriously curtail water exchange between different sections of a bay 

 or between a bay and the peripheral marshes. Solution of this problem may 

 require research on the rates of sloughing of spoil banks according to soil 

 type s . 



The Gulf Basins plan for Texas contemplates the transport of fresh 

 water by a canal paralleling the coast from the eastern humid basins to the 

 semiarid and arid basins farther west. Much of this water will be used for 

 irrigation or other consumptive uses, reducing the fresh-water inflow into 

 many estuaries. In some cases the reduction through water storage of peak 

 discharges during certain seasons may be of actual benefit provided the flow 

 is not drastically curtailed in other seasons. The problem merits full atten- 

 tion, and existing data and reports are being studied to discover what they 

 show of preconstruction conditions. 



A general program for estuarine research in the Gulf was presented 

 to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission at their March 16-17 meeting 

 in Biloxi. In this report stress was laid on the necessity for federal, state, 

 and academic cooperation to solve problems that are beyond the scope and the 

 means of any single agency. Three broad fields of research comprise prob- 

 lems to be attacked in the laboratory, in the estuaries, and on the adjacent 

 continental shelf. Basic laboratory problems include studies of the resistance 

 of various species to physical and chemical properties of the water, deter- 

 mination of the conditions optimum to their performance, growth and survival, 

 and determination of their nutritional requirements. In the estuaries we need 

 to inventory the types of habitat and the related fauna, determine the relative 

 abundance and distribution of species, and collect background environmental 

 data at selected stations to understand long-term fluctuations. On the conti- 

 nental shelf we need to understand the distribution of oceanic properties and 

 the oceanic ecology of those species that are dependent at some stage of their 

 life history on suitable estuarine habitat. 



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