Knowledge resulting from research has, on 

 repeated occasions over the years, eased strains 

 between fishermen and companies exploring for 

 oil reserves off the Gulf and West Coasts. 



The geophysical surveys needed to evaluate the 

 oD-bearing potential of an area involve the use of 

 explosives. Fishermen, fearing massive fish kills, 

 have protested vigorously when surveys were 

 inuninent. Extensive research to determine where 

 the damage threshold lay showed the lack of 

 danger to the fishing interests, by the use of 

 animal cages recovered after demonstration shots. 

 Explosions were also timed not to interefere with 

 fish migrations. The balance between the needs of 

 the geophysicist and the safety of marine popula- 

 tions was preserved. 



In light of the large investment made by 

 Federal, State, and local governments to shape our 

 coastlines and estuaries to our needs, the present 

 effort devoted to acquiring the fundamental 

 knowledge of near shore and estuarine processes is 

 inadequate. 



Recommendation: 



Each Federal agency concerned with near shore 

 waters should devote a considerably higher per 

 cent of its funds to basic research in the physical 

 processes which shape our coastlines and estuaries. 

 This will insure the availability of essential knowl- 

 edge necessary to plan and implement programs 

 for their protection and preservation. 



B. Polluting the Waters 



Man has brought profound upheaval in the 

 natural balance of our environmental forces, an 

 upheaval which perils his own well-being today, 

 and which, unless current trends are reversed, will 

 pose even greater danger tomorrow. 



Usually, these disturbances are the result of 

 gradual accumulation or modification— the build- 

 ing of cities, clearing of forests, plowing of 

 prairies, leveling of dunes, the addition of flush 

 toilets, the use of leaded gasoline or agricultural 

 chemicals, and disposal of industrial wastes. They 

 can consist of dissolved, suspended, or floating 

 material. They can be thermal, by augmentation of 

 the heat content of the water mass through its use 

 as a cooling liquid. Or they can result not from 

 artificial additions to the environment but from 

 artificial subtractions; the diversion of fresh water 



can lead to increased salinity in an estuary, with 

 resulting changes in the biota. 



Normally such environmental changes are grad- 

 ual and reversible by ceasing the activities that 

 generated them. The estuaries and the Great Lakes 

 where the drainage of the land is finally deUvered 

 are seriously affected by waterborne pollution. 



Figure 9. Assorted debris, including a float- 

 ing dock, polluting Cuyahoga River, near 

 Cleveland. (Federal Water Pollution Control 

 Administration photo) 



Attack on the problems of pollution must be 

 accompanied by an increased level of basic re- 

 search on the dynamics of estuarine waters, on the 

 identification of specific pollutants and the tracing 

 of their effects, both on individual species and on 

 ecosystems, and on the mechanisms whereby 

 organisms in the estuarine ecosystem take up and 

 accumulate various kinds of pollutants. 



Numerous examples can be cited where the lack 

 of basic knowledge has created intolerable condi- 

 tions. The introduction of modern agricultural 

 chemicals has created problems in our estuaries 

 and Great Lakes.'* Runoff of excess fertilizers 

 contributes an over-supply of nutrients; runoff of 

 herbicides and pesticides is toxic to marine organ- 

 isms. Even when the level of concentration in the 

 water is low, the pesticide can be successively 

 concentrated as it moves through the food web. 



The fact that, unlike municipal and industrial 

 pollutants, agricultural pollutants do not originate 

 at a point source adds to the complexity of the 

 problem. 



The problem of marine pollution cannot be 

 solved in isolation from the more general problem 

 of wider waste management and control. A par- 

 ticularly comprehensive document in this regard is 

 the National Academy of Sciences' study, "Waste 



Great Lakes Restoration-Review of Potentials and 

 Recommendations for Implementation, Research Report 

 to the Commission by Pacific Northwest Laboratories of 

 the Battelle Memorial Institute, June 1968. 



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