SAC recommended integrated field and laboratory studies to determine 

 whether the potential threat of pathogens and toxins affecting fishes 

 in the waste disposal areas can be verified. 



c. Effects on Zooplankton . The effect of dumping on planktonic life 

 should be known, because zooplankton plays an important role in the food 

 chain, and serves as the link between the phytoplankton and the larger 

 marine animals. Any major disruption in zooplankton production will 

 affect the fish and other larger animals that use zooplankton as a food 

 source. Environmental changes are known to change the composition and 

 seasonal distribution of certain local zooplanktonic organisms. Jeffries 

 (1959) relates a large increase in the Pseudodiaptomus sp., population 

 of Raritan Bay to the abatement of a sewage discharge. However, signifi- 

 cantly important changes in zooplankt.on organisms were observed in the 

 New York Bight dumping grounds. Unusually high or low values of zoo- 

 plankton numbers in the Bight, according to the SHL report, may be the 

 result of an occasional influx of estuarine brackish water or an effect 

 of major water mass movements and not the result of local disposal 

 activities. Abnormal values were observed in July, 1969 indicating in- 

 creased zooplankton patchiness during the summer months. 



SHL data have illustrated that the zooplankton species composition, 

 density, and seasonal distribution in the Bight are similar to those of 

 Block Island Sound, the waters off Delaware Bay, and other unpolluted 

 coastal environments. It was impossible to find any short-terra adverse 

 effects on zooplankton populations resulting from the dumping of sewage 

 sludge, dredge spoils, and acid wastes. The SAC review similarly found 

 no evidence in the SHL data that indicates that ocean dumping in the 

 Bight has had beneficial or detrimental effects on zooplankton populations. 



Although larvae of different marine organisms were abundant in the 

 zooplankton, juvenile and adult populations of benthic species, were de- 

 pressed in the sewage sludge disposal area (SHL). On the basis of this 

 observation, the SHL study suggested that larvae either avoid settling in 

 this area or that mortality occurs after settling, but this, has not been 

 confirmed. 



Based on laboratory experiments with zooplankton, SHL concluded that 

 the present practice of industrial acid waste dumping killed copepods in 

 the immediate area of disposal. The quantity of acid dumped is about 

 220,000 cubic feet per day. The maximum volume of sea water affected 

 has been calculated to be 900,000,000 gallons (3,400,000 m^) per barge 

 load of wastes. This volume would contain about 2 cubic meters (displace- 

 ment volume) of zooplankton biomass. This quantity of zooplankton, if 

 indeed affected by dumping, is insignificant relative to total zooplankton 

 population of the Bight. 



According to the SHL study, the killing of zooplankton is the result 

 of the acid wastes, which consist of 8.5-10 percent H2SO4 and 8-10 per- 

 cent FeSOt^. In laboratory experiments, SHL assumed a rate of dilution 

 of one part acid to 200 parts of sea water disregarding time and space. 



134 



