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identify deep-sea life forms, so that they can be enumerated and 

 compared from one part of the ocean to another. Recent estimates 

 indicate a richness of species in the deep sea as high as from any 

 environment on earth. Although the deep ocean might be called a 

 desert if only total numbers or weight per area of animals is 

 considered, it cannot be considered a desert if we take into 

 account the richness of species- -a richness that has yet to be 

 fully described. Most of the deep ocean has never been sampled 

 properly, and it is therefore likely to reveal many more surprises 

 in the future. The deep-sea fauna is a vast reservoir of 

 biological innovation that can be tapped for use as pharmaceuticals 

 or for the development of other useful compounds. 



Since the lowest points on the planet are in the deep ocean, 

 gravity dictates that the deep-sea floor is also a repository for 

 the relatively small amount of waste that is transported large 

 distances in the atmosphere, or through ocean circulation, great 

 distances from land. Pollutants are detectable wherever they have 

 been looked for in the deep sea, but so far the concentrations have 

 not been shown to be a cause for immediate alarm. 



The main importance of our studies of deep-ocean municipal sludge 

 disposal is to predict the probable effects of the gradual build-up 

 of pollutants that is occurring from other sources. The surface 

 discharge of sludge from 1986 to 1992, at a rate of about 8-9 

 million tons per year, resulted in: 1. significant increases in 

 bottom contamination by both metal and organic pollutants over 

 background concentrations (despite predictions to the contrary), 2. 

 changes in bacterial community composition, 3. transfer of sludge- 

 derived carbon into the tissues of deep-sea animals, 4. a twofold 

 increase in the oxygen uptake of deep-sea sediments, and 5. the 

 appearance of species not normally common at the site. Surface 

 disposal of sludge over an approximate 75 nautical square mile area 

 affected and contaminated over 1,400 nautical square miles of deep- 

 sea floor. A re-examination of the site in 1994 suggested that, as 

 a result of cessation of sludge dumping in 1992, measurable 

 recovery of the environment had started. These results are 

 available in a number of reports and published articles that we can 

 make available to you. If the National Undersea Research Program 

 continues to be able to support this research, we expect to study 

 the site again in the summer of 1996. Our objective is to measure 

 the continued recovery of the site and to determine the time scales 

 over which this sort of environmental disturbance might be expected 



