A Short History of Marine Environmental Monitoring

摘要

When I first started (1967) with a benthic research program in the New York Bight, designed to ascertain over two years the consequences of ocean dumping of dredged materials and sewage sludge, the budget for the program was less than a quarter of a million dollars and the objects of the research numbered about 100 benthic and demersal species, a half dozen trace or toxic metals, an indicator microorganism, E. coli, and the levels of organic materials in sediments impacted by solid wastes. Within a year or so the agenda included the measurement of Redox potential and seabed respiration, several bacteria and virus, as well as the pathological conditions of two or three species of demersal fish. In the early 1970s, reports were published which took note of the areal distributions of trace metals in sediments, levels of bacteria in and around the dump sites, diseased fishes, and the disappearance of key benthic species, such as the amphipods, in and around the centers of dumping operations.