440 



water quality. Quite often governmental and industrial groups interested in main- 

 taining natural waters are not brought into action until some plant or animal has 

 clearly indicated poor conditions, e.g., severe mortalities of fishes and inverte- 

 brates, plankton blooms, macroalgae destruction. 



Virginia still possesses a wealth of useful marine organisms. From them she 

 derives revenues at landing of about 22 million dollars. About 10,000 people are 

 directly involved. At wholesale and retail the amounts of money and people in- 

 volved double and triple. Seafoods have long been a part of the Virginia scene, a 

 part worth presex'ving not only for the delightful variety they provide but because 

 they will be really needed in the future. 



An especial value of these resources is the fact that they are largely self-re- 

 newing. That is they replenish themselves regularly with very little capital in- 

 vestment from man. Were we to back calculate their capital value to Virginia at 

 10 percent per annum, it is plain that an investment of $200,000,000 dollars, a too 

 conservative figure, would be required as the capital investment in any manu- 

 facturing industry in order to produce such an annual sum. It is in this way 

 that comparisons should be made when plans are being made for industrialization 

 and development of the marine resource systems. 



Sport fishing 



Marine organisms are more useful and perhaps more heavily exploited for 

 recreational and aesthetic purposes than for commercial reasons. It is impossible 

 to place values on the expectation and thrills of merely seeing animals and 

 plants in the water. Though some are at times nuisances and repulsive, like 

 jelly fish and watermilfoil, it is likely that most of the fascination inherent" in 

 estuarine and marine waters would not be there were animals and plants gone. 

 Absent would be the lure of wading along and flushing and observing small fishes 

 and crabs and no delightful treasures would be washed upon the beaches for 

 amateur beachcombers to find and squirrel away. Sport fishermen are rapidly 

 rivaling commercial exploiters as uers and sources of pressure on fishing stocks. 

 Though estimates are available for sport fishing expenditures they tell only part 

 of the story. 



Though not strictly aquatic or marine, ducks, shorebirds and certain fur- 

 bearing mammals are regular inhabitants of tidal marshes. Each year 13,000 

 sportsmen spend over half a million dollars to enjoy these self -renewing resources 

 of Virginia tidal marshes. Thus, not only is marshland valuable and essential as 

 nursery areas for many marine organisms but it is also useful recreationally. 

 Aesthetically, marine marshes are beautiful, wild often lonely places where 

 many wonderful birds and animals can be seen, photographed, hunted and 

 enjoyed. As mentioned above, when marshlands are destroyed not only is estu- 

 arine production of other marine animals reduced but these marsh animals and 

 plants, themselves, are gone forever. 



It might be mentioned that the ocean of air above us is a valuable natural 

 resoui^ce also and that an uncontaminated atmosphere is an imjwrtant asset to 

 enjoyment of marine resources. Airborne contaminants fall mostly on the sea 

 (the sea occupies most of Earth's surface) but that is a subject as vast as the 

 sea and will be left for some other time and person. 



l^fARINE RESOURCE PROBLEMS 



It has been shown that Virginia has a vast treasure trove of aesthetic and 

 economic wealth in her marine waters. Indeed it is certain that a great part 

 of Virginia's actual and potential wealth is marine oriented. 



The marine environment is complex. Most of Virginia's marine resources are 

 located within, along or under the major estuaries and the coastal lagoons or 

 the shallow reaches of the Virginian Sea. In contrast to deeper ocean waters, 

 these are areas where the shore and sea meet, where fresh water from upriver 

 and from other surface and subsurface drainage meets and dilutes the salt water 

 from the sea. Here also the shallow bottoms have their greatest effect on the 

 currents and on the contents, chemistry and biology of the brackish and salt 

 waters above them. Tliese coastal waters receive soil eroded from the land with 

 its minerals and, as a consequence, are usually richer than those of the deep 

 oceans. Estuarine and coastal seas also receive the suspended or dissolved wastes 

 from all cities, towns, homes and industries along all coastal rivers. 



With the close and immediate interactions taking place between the land, the 

 sea, the atmosphere, fresh and salt water and society, coastal waters are ex- 



