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7 

 Detection and monitoring of ANS will be accomplished through 

 coordination of existing activities and field studies by the 

 Monitoring Committee, and through a data repository and 

 information management system currently in operation at the Fish 

 and Wildlife Services 's National Fisheries Research Center in 

 Gainesville, Florida. NOAA has been involved in this area since 

 the early 1960s when the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) 

 established an aquatic shellfish disease research program. In 

 addition to shellfish pathogen research, NMFS monitors the 

 presence of pathogens in imported seafood through a Memorandum of 

 Understanding with the Food and Drug Administration. In 

 addition, NOAA's National Estuarine and Research Reserve System 

 (NERRS) has existing monitoring programs for base-line 

 parameters. The sites are well integrated with state agencies 

 and the academic communities around them. They can be used as a 

 framework from which to initiate a long-term monitoring program 

 for the occurrence and spread of exotic species. Additional 

 monitoring responsibilities also can be incorporated into NOAA's 

 National Status and Trends Program which assesses the effects of 

 human activities on environmental quality in the nation's coastal 

 zones through benthic sampling and bioeffects research. 



Control of ANS will be addressed through a control risk 

 assessment and management process outlined in the ANS Program. 

 The Task Force currently is using this process in regards to the 

 unintentional introduction of ruffe, a European perch, via 



