industry and university contractors. A similar cooperative study will be 

 initiated in Puget Sound/Prince William Sound in fiscal year 1976. In 

 another major cooperative effort, NOAA participates with ships, 

 facilities, and scientific expertise in DOI OCS Environmental Assess- 

 ment Program. 



The Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) sup- 

 ports marine science research directed to learning the effects of biologi- 

 cal activity, sedimentation, circulation and mixing, and other marine 

 processes on the accumulation of energy-related pollutants in the living 

 and nonliving portions of the marine environment and the impact of 

 those pollutants. Information derived from these studies can be used in 

 ascertaining the probable effects of large-scale oil drilling and spilling 

 activities on the Continental Shelf as well as assessing the impact of 

 situating large numbers of powerplants in the coastal zone. ERDA-sup- 

 ported coastal zone research programs are conducted by university 

 research scientists in the New York Bight, the South Atlantic Bight, 

 Puget Sound and the Continental Shelf off the Washington coast, the 

 southern California Bight and the Great Lakes. A program is also being 

 established in the Gulf of Mexico. 



The National Science Foundation (NSF), mainly through its Division 

 of Ocean Sciences, also supports basic research on the sources pathways, 

 and fates of pollutants in the marine environment. Much of this work is 

 supported through the International Decade of Ocean Exploration's En- 

 vironmental Quality program. The program is designed to provide infor- 

 mation on the quality of the oceanic environment and to assess and pre- 

 dict man's impact on this environment through research in geochemical 

 processes and marine pollution. The present program consists of the 

 following three major investigations: the Geochemical Ocean Sections 

 Study (GEOSECS) to make detailed measurement of physical and 

 chemical characteristics of ocean waters along Arctic to Antarctic sec- 

 tions; the Pollutant Transfer Program to investigate mechanisms and 

 pathways by which pollutants are transported to and within the oceans; 

 the Biological Effects Program to assess the impact of selected pollutants 

 on marine organisms; and the Controlled Ecosystem Pollution Experi- 

 ment (CEPEX) to study the effects of pollutants on the dynamics of 

 marine planktonic ecosystems in large plastic enclosures suspended in 

 the ocean. 



GEOSECS is an international cooperative program involving 

 geochemists from 14 U.S. universities. Investigators from Belgium, 

 Canada, France, Germany, India. Japan, and the United Kingdom are 

 participating in the GEOSECS program or are carrying out similar 

 programs coordinated by the United States. 



The U.S. program involves the occupation of 121 oceanographic sta- 

 tions in the Atlantic and 147 stations in the Pacific. These stations are lo- 

 cated along north-south survey tracks and generally coincide with the 



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