28 



ical compound has been found in the most remote regions of the earth 

 is, however, a matter of great interest and concern. 



I sliould like to interject a tliought here tliat one should be very 

 cautious. As interest has grown in pollutants and their distribution 

 throughout the world, so has the capability of science to detect these 

 compounds. The instruments used today are overwhelmingly better 

 than they were a few years ago, so one should not panic completely, 

 because we can now detect them. The real problem is measurmg the 

 amount and their coverage. 



The technology of instrumentation is improving to do the job which 

 is obviously beiore us to measure tnese things all over the world. 



I should now like to discuss some of the work supported by the NSF 

 that is related to ocean pollution. A substantial portion of the research 

 carried out under the auspices of our International Decade of Ocean 

 Exploration (IDOE) is directed toward the preservation of the qual- 

 ity of our marine environment. 



Thirty-two nations are contributing to that program, and NSF is the 

 responsible agency in this country. 



In 1971-72, the IDOE sponsored an intensive program of baseline 

 measurements at sea of the concentration of compounds that are con- 

 sidered potentially deleterious to man or to marine life. Quantitative 

 measurements have been made of the occurrence and distribution of 

 trace metals, chlorinated hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and 

 petroleum in sea water, in the biota, and m sediments. 



The study conhrmed the readily identihable presence in many open 

 ocean organisms of synthetic chlorinated hydrocarbons (such as PCB 

 and DDT and their metabolites) and petroleum hydrocarbons. 



These baseline studies provided ciata indicating ilie need tor further 

 research on tw^o impotrant topics: The entry of pollutants into the 

 ocean, and their ehects on marine biota. Among these etiorts directed 

 to pollutant dispersal are studies of the mechanisms and rates of entry 

 into the oceans by way of river runotf and fallout from the atmosphere. 



Measurements of eptroleum concentrations in tlie North Atlantic will 

 help trace the sources of these materials. With regard to the ehects of 

 pollutants on marine biota, experiments at the molecular level have 

 been started to determine the ehects which certain compounds have on 

 the rate of reaction in key enzyme systems. 



Studies are being conducted on the ability of marine bacteria to carry 

 out, in the presence of pollutants, their vital function of decomposi- 

 tion- — a major step in the recycling of nutrients. At the individual 

 organism level, the impact of pollutants is being studied in both plants 

 and animal types. 



For example, the effects of pollutants on photosynthetic mircoaglae 

 are being determined through measurements of growth, respiration and 

 photosynthetic rates. In zooplankton and higher forms, poUu^^ant 

 effects are being tested on vital processes such as metabolic rates. 



Finally, the impact of pollutants on marine communities is being 

 studied in an IDOE program carried on as a joint effort by scientists 

 from four U.S. universities, and from institutions in Canada and the 

 United Kingdom. This i)rogram is known as CEPEX — the Controlled 

 Ecosystems Pollution Experiment. 



The goal of CEPEX is to evaluate the effects of pollutants on tlie 

 lower levels in the food chain, particularly bacteria phytoplankton and 

 zooplankton. CEPEX scientists are constructing ffexible plastic cylin- 



