583 
-25- 
detect uptake by organisms, particularly sedentary 
species, and to identify bioaccumulation processes. 
Monitoring programs should be designed to detect 
any physiological or morphological abnormalities in 
resident biota and to identify in situ conditions 
where more subtle physiological processes involving 
radionuclides might be studied.65/ 
B. International Concerns 
The GAO Report references international activities concerning 
dumping at the Northeast Atlantic dumpsite, and recommends that 
the United States rely upon the international community's research 
and monitoring in relation to that site as the principal source of 
scientific understanding for future policy decisions by the United 
States. While that recommendation is addressed in the following 
section, it is instructive to note that the London Dumping Convention, 
the IAEA guidelines adopted thereunder, and other international 
initiatives, also recognize the need to monitor past dumping for 
66/ 
the purpose of assessing potential hazards. 
Addressing the issue of monitoring, the IAEA guidelines 
state that “environmental monitoring combined with research can 
provide information testing the validity of present assumptions 
and help to provide a sound scientific basis for the conservatior 
of ocean resources and for future monitoring operations and an 
65/ Interagency Committee on Ocean Pollution Research, Develop- 
ment and Monitoring/Federal Coordinating Council for Science, 
Engineering and Technology, National Marine Pollution Program: 
Federal Plan 1981-85 (Sept. 1981) at 42. 
66/ London Dumping Convention, supra note 13, Arts: VI.1.D, 
IX, Annex III(B) (4) and C(1)(2), and (3); IAEA Revised Definition, 
supra note 14, B.2. 
