3. water Quality . 



Water temperature was relatively constant throughout the study area within 

 each sampling period in both years (App. B) . Temperatures ranged from 10.0° to 

 21.0° Celsius in 1980, and from 1 0.9° to 2 3.8° Celsius in 1981. In both years 

 the highest temperature was recorded in July and the lowest in October. 

 Generally the water temperature was slightly higher at stations 1 and 2 than at 

 stations 3 and 4, and was also slightly higher at the surface than at the 

 bottom. Dissolved oxygen (DO) remained at or near 1 00 percent saturation at 

 all stations throughout the study (App. B) . Concentrations of DO ranged from 

 9.4 to 13.2 milligrams per liter in July and June 1980, respectively, and from 

 8.4 to 12.9 milligrams per liter in July and June 1981, respectively. Through- 

 out the study suspended particulate matter (SPM) was highest at station 1 and 

 decreased with distance from shore; SPM ranged from 1.2 to 133.6 milligrams per 

 liter in July 1980 and from 1.7 to 145.0 milligrams per liter in June and 

 October 1981, respectively (App. B) . At stations 3 and 4 SPM was usually 

 higher at the bottom than at the surface. Throughout the study, turbidity was 

 usually higher at stations 1 and 2 than at stations 3 and 4; turbidity ranged 

 from 1.1 to 81.0 nelphalometric turbidity units (NTU) in July 1980 and from 0.6 

 to 70.5 NTU in June to October 1981, respectively (App. B). 



Turbidity values were also similar on all transects within each sampling 

 period. The single exception occurred on 21 July 1980, when turbidity values 

 were low on transect I and high on transects II through VI (App. B) . A 

 similar situation is apparently documented in an aerial photograph of the 

 harbor area taken on 2 3 July 1980 (Fig. 2). 



4. Macrozoobenthos . 



More than 29,600 organisms representing 40 taxa were identified from the 

 432 benthos samples taken throughout the study (Table 4; App. C). The most 

 abundant organisms were Oligochaeta (worms) and Chironomidae (midge larvae) 

 which made up 71 and 21 percent, respectively, of the total by number; 17 

 other taxa made up 2.0 to 0.1 percent of the total and the remaining 21 taxa 

 contributed less than 0.1 percent each. 



The densities of oligochaetes at all transects and for all sampling 

 periods were usually lowest at station 1 and highest at either station 3 or 4 

 (Table 5). One major exception to this trend occurred at transect III, station 

 2, in October 1980 when the density of oligochaetes reached 10,137 per square 

 meter, greatly exceeding that at stations 3 and 4. 



Densities in 1981 were often higher than in 1980 at many transects and 

 stations, and the densities at transect I, station 4, in October 1981 and 

 transect III, station 3/ in July and October 1981 were the highest measured 

 during the study. The high density at transect I, a reference transect, is 

 unexplained. The consistently high densities of oligochaetes at transect III 

 in both 1980 and 1981 may reflect the presence of an eddy current just south of 

 the harbor which appeared to cause silty clay to accumulate, thus providing a 

 more suitable substrate than is available elsewhere throughout the study area 

 for colonization by oligochaetes. 



The densities of chironcmids at all transects for all sampling periods 

 were usually the lowest at station 1 (Table 6). Densities at stations 2 to 4, 



18 



