Sediment toxicity in U.S. coastal waters

This report is based on a series of sediment toxicity surveys conducted by National Ocean Service’s Coastal Monitoring and Assessment Division in the Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment (ORCA) since 1990 in U.S. coastal waters. Most of the work has been published in various scientific reports and articles that have been recently summarized by Long et al. (1996a). The data from these surveys are published in technical reports (listed in the Selected Bibliography of this report). NS&T results indicate that chemical contamination, while ubiquitous in the strictest sense, is at higher concentrations near centers of human population. Measured biological responses to chemical contaminants vary considerably among coastal areas. Acute toxicity, as measured by survival of test animals, is confined to heavily contaminated areas; other measures of toxicity show more widespread responses. 1998 NOS (National Ocean Service) Library Public Domain 1935