hydrocarbons are already being deposited in continental shelf areas off the 
eastern United States before Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas drilling and 
production have begun. This must be taken into account when assessing 
potential environmental impacts of OCS operations, now and in the future. 
SUMMARY AND GENERAL DISCUSSION 
Aromatic hydrocarbons are incorporated into surface sediments as a result 
of oil spills, and the chronic dribbling of urban air hydrocarbons into the 
marine environment. These compounds are known to have adverse effects on 
marine organisms under certain conditions. The challenge posed is to conduct 
experiments which will investigate how bottom current resuspension, 
bioturbation by animals, and long-term microbial and chemical processes act 
individually and collectively on the aromatic hydrocarbons in surface 
sediments. Are these compounds in the sediments incorporated into benthic 
organisms? At what rate and under what conditions? We need to relate 
chemical analyses by some means to biological availability. 
Some recent investigations conducted on a short-term two-week exposure of 
sipunculid worms suggest that naphthalenes can be ingested from naphthalene 
contaminated sediments (1). Two weeks of “depuration” in a clean 
environment removed all measurable quantities of naphthalenes from the 
worms (1). The exposure time was very short. What happens when exposure of 
the benthic organism is continuous for years, as is probably the case for low 
concentrations of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in Buzzards Bay, and 
higher concentrations near the New York Bight area? 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
I wish to thank R.A. Hites, R.E. LaFlamme, B.W. Tripp, N.M. Frew and J.M. 
Teal for enjoyable collaboration and discussion of much of the research 
discussed and referenced in this paper. This paper presents a synopsis of several 
papers and acknowledgments to agencies providing financial support are found 
in the referenced papers. 
The compilation of data and writing of this paper were supported by U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency Grant R803902. This paper is Contribution 
Number 4041 of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 
REFERENCES 
1. Anderson, J.W., L.J. Moore, J.W. Blaylock, D.L. Woodruff and S.L. 
Kiesser. 1977. Bioavailability of Sediment-Sorbed Naphthalenes to the 
Sipunculid Worm, Phascolosoma agassizzii. Chapter 29 in Fate and Effects 
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