463 
"___ that it will become increasingly difficult to ac- 
quire and continue to use conventional disposal sites 
in the Coastal Zone, whether they are in upland areas, 
or in estuaries or on the inner continental slope. 
This problem will be aggravated by the estimated future 
increases in the ainount of dredged material produced in 
waters of many nations. A viable alternative to the 
increasingly unsatisfactory disposal operations will 
eventually be needed. It is concluded --- that deep 
ocean sites of various types will meet this need and 
that their use will impose only minor stresses on deep 
ocean ecosystems (Pequegnat, et al., 1978)." 
A parallel opinion was voiced by the eminent marine geologist K. 0. Emery 
of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1971 (Andreliunas and Hard, 
1972) when he indicated that there is much more ocean floor than dry land 
and advised that the deep ocean should be used for certain types of waste 
disposal, provided it is done under knowledgeable management to minimize 
ecological problems. Clearly good management is part of the special care 
concept. 
Some Factors Favoring the Deep Ocean as a Special Care Area 
There are several valid reasons why it is believed that impacts of dredged 
material will not create severe stresses in the deep ocean. In general, 
those marine scientists who favor deep ocean disposal base their opfnion in 
part on the probability that there will be an amelioration of effects dur- 
ing a long transit in the water column. Also, the deep ocean has large 
areas and imiense volumes of water to dilute materials, even within reason- 
able distances seaward of the continental shelf break with the continental 
slope. Consideration must certainly be given to the fact that the deep 
ocean supports a small biomass and much of it consists of deposit-feeding 
animals, many of which are burrowers. For instance the eminent deep-sea 
biologist Hjalmar Thiel of the Hydrobiological Institute of the University 
of Hamburg (1975) estimates that the weight of animals per unit area is as 
much as 10,000 times greater on the shelf than it is in the abyssal plains 
of the deep ocean. Perhaps, of greatest immediate significance is the fact 
that the deep ocean is little used by man today (no commercial fisheries 
