PANEL DISCUSSION 
Dr, D'Elia: I'll start from the far end introducing the 
people on the Panel. 
Dr, Tom Malone, from the University of Maryland Center for 
Environmental and Estuarine Studies; Dr. Jim Sanders, whom we 
have heard from before; Dr. Ed Houde, who is finishing up his 
term with the National Science Foundation Biological Oceano¬ 
graphy Program and has been on leave from the Chesapeake Biologi 
cal Laboratory; Dr. Howard Seliger, who is with Johns Hopkins 
University; Dr. Grace Brush of the same; Dr. Glen Kinser with 
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Dr. A1 Morris, who is with 
the U.S. EPA Region III; Mr. Bill Eichbaum, who is Assistant Sec 
retary for Environmental Programs, State of Maryland; and of 
course you know Jim Thomas and me. 
So with that. I'll ask a question, and anybody can feel free 
to jump in. I've always been interested in knowing, with all 
the focus on anoxia, what can we do about it in the Bay? 
Anybody got an answer? Why don't I pick Tom Malone? 
Dr. Malone: What can we do about anoxia in the main stem 
of the Bay? I think the question remains open right now, 
whether or not, and I don't say that this isn't the case, but 
whether or not the increase in anthropogenic nutrient inputs 
into the Bay has in fact aggravated the situation. Unfortunate¬ 
ly, I think that, as some of the people today have pointed out, 
the data sets that exist do not allow us to establish a cause- 
and-effect relationship between inputs of nutrients, but they 
diffuse inputs or point source inputs, and the actual magnitude 
in terms of the volume of and areal extent of anoxia in the 
Bay. I think that's one of the most important things that we 
need to establish not only from the point of view of under¬ 
standing the mechanisms that couple these inputs and outputs, 
but also from the point of view of management. 
For example, understanding how relationships among nutrient 
inputs, phytoplankton production, and anoxia are related in 
space and time is critical to determine how to manage inputs of 
nutrients, be they nitrogen or phosphorous. 
I guess the basic point I want to make is that we don't have 
the data base to establish the link between nutrient input and 
oxygen depletion. The analogy that was made would be one that 
would, say, compare to nuclear arms. We know that the U.S. and 
Russia have enough weaponry to totally destroy the earth ten 
times over, and we have no idea right now for the Chesapeake Bay 
whether or not we're up in that ozone layer in terms of nutrient 
inputs or whether our input is basically, you know, just noise 
in the system that's being mainly controlled by variations in 
climate. 
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