fundinij^ makes possible certain \ery expensive programs like POLY- 

 MODE, whose budget, estimated to exceed $4 million per year, would 

 put quite a strain on the resources of any one agency. Interagency fund- 

 ing is not without its problems, however, as the uncertainties associated 

 with changes in the budgets and priorities of several agencies must now 

 be taken into account. 



The Environmental Quality Program is responsive to the goal con- 

 cerning preservation of the ocean environment. The component projects 

 in this program, and their contributions to this goal, are: 



Pollutant Baselines 



Tliis project was carried out during 1971-72. At that time reports 

 from several groups of experts on marine pollution had pointed 

 out the paucity and unreliability of existing data on pollutants in 

 the marine environment. The baseline studies took a major step 

 toward solving this problem by undertaking a coordinated analysis 

 of concentrations of major pollutants in inshore and open ocean 

 areas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and 

 the Caribbean Sea. 



Measurements were made of concentrations of potentially toxic 

 substances, mostly in organisms, but also in water and sediments. 

 These have served to establish normal background levels which 

 have proved useful in subsequent baseline studies (such as those 

 carried out in connection with oil and gas development on the 

 Outer Continental Shelf), and also to give some indication of the 

 changes in these concentrations attributable to human activities. 

 Considerable emphasis was placed on intercalibration and data 

 standardization. This study is now the major reference for oceanic 

 pollution levels. 



Geochemical Ocean Sections Study (GEOSECS) 



GEOSECS, which began in 1971, is designed to provide measure- 

 ments of the spatial distribution of those chemical constituents of 

 ocean water that will contribute to a better imderstanding of 

 stirring and mixing in the deej) ocean and the exchange of energ\' 

 and material between the atmosphere, the surface layers of the 

 ocean, and the deep ocean waters. It also serves as a geochemical 

 baseline survey of the world ocean. 



During the field phase of the project, a large number of seawater 

 samples were collected at various depths from the surface to the 

 bottom, along sections of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from the 

 Arctic to the Antarctic. These samples are being analyzed for a 

 number of chemical constituents, including radioisotopes introduced 

 into the oceans as fallout. 



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