Nuclear submarine incidents

Volume17/Number6/June 1986 probably also reflects the ban on the use and manufacture of these products that also took place at the same time. Analysis of the total DDT residues in the Arctic ringed seals shows there to be a smaller fraction of metabolized DDT groups (p,p,DDE) than in the harp seals suggesting that the Arctic seals have been exposed for much longer to a continuing supply of fresh DDT. DDT has not been used extensively in the Canadian Arctic since the early 1970s; it was apparently being used in China as recently as 1981 and was used extensively in the Far East until at least the end of the last decade. Mechanisms are known to exist by which it could be transported to the Arctic from these sources. One such route could be transport by ocean currents via the Bering Straight (these currents may account for 15-20% of the total water flowing into the Arctic Ocean). Atmospheric transport is another more likely possibility since some of the pollutants in Arctic haze' appear to originate in the Far East. The existence of these pathways suggest that DDT recently used in the Far East could be introduced to the Canadian Arctic and hence find its way into the tinged seal population.

Round Table on Marine Geography, Nice A French-Belgian-Italian round table entitled 'The integration of Man in the Marine Environment' was held on 31 January-1 February 1986 at the University of Nice. Various contributions on different arguments were given by Belgian and French geographers from the Commission on Marine Geography and by Italian geographers from the work group 'Humanization of the sea'. Marine biologists from Pisa and from Nice also participated in the discussion. The aim of the meeting was to analyse the implications deriving from wider and more continuous use of the sea and from progress in maritime management. The following questions were posed: 1. Geoeconomic and geo-political aspects of the development of the international law of the sea; 2. The impact of mineral sea industry on coastal organization; 3. Utilization of biological resources; 4. Technological and organizational progress in maritime transport and its repercussions on port areas; 5. Sea management. The meeting was concluded by reflections on probable sea organization in the near future and on the methodologies which human geography should possess for facing these new fields of study. It was proposed that the International Geographical Union set up as soon as possible a study group on the geography of the sea. G. COGNETTI

cross-referenced. The projects, which are' grouped under general subject areas, list the objectives, methods, status, project leaders/contact officers, funding sources, and publications arising. There are indexes of subject, organization, project leader/contact officer, geographic area, and locality. A new, annual update cycle for information in AMRIP is presently underway. For the first time, respondents were requested to identify the form, storage and availability of primary data, to further enhance the utility of the AMRIP database. The updated information will be accessible online in mid-1986, through the AUSTRALIS information retrieval system on CSIRONET. Charges for the online services have yet to be determined. The online accessibility will continue to be complemented by biennial publications of a hardcopy edition. The next volume is likely to contain analyses of trends in marine science and technology identified by the database since 1981. The management partnership of AMRIP is also considering ways in which an Australian information system such as AMRIP can service needs in Asian and Pacific countries, or can act as a model for the development of special information systems for them. Copies of the 1985 volume may be obtained at a cost of AUSS10.00 plus postage charges from: Victorian Institute of Marine Sciences, 14 Parliament Place, Melbourne, Vic. 3002, Australia.

Protection for Australian Marine Mammals New legislation aimed at improving the protection of both wild and captive marine mammals is expected to be presented to the New South Wales state parliament during the current session. The Marine Mammals Protection Act will impose maximum fines of up to AS100,000, imprisonment, or both against anyone found guilty of harming these animals in the wild. Most dolphinariums in New South Wales are to be phased out and the remaining captive marine mammals are to be made the property of the Crown. A committee composed of both government representatives and conservation groups is to be set up to advise on conservation strategies for marine mammals and a management plan is to be formulated to monitor population distribution and threats to species.

Nuclear Submarine Incidents

The US Pentagon has confirmed that two of its nuclear powered submarines, the USS Nathaniel Greene and the USS Atlanta, have sustained damage as a result of groundings in European waters. The USS Nathaniel Greene armed with Poseidon missiles touched bottom o n 13 March 1986 in the Irish Sea but w a s able to reach Holy Loch on the East coast of Scotland without assistance. The USS Atlanta damaged ballast tanks and The 1985 edition of Australian Marine Research in Pro- sustained other external damage on 29 April 1986 durgress (AMPdP) has recently been published. It lists 989 ing its passage through the Straits of Gibraltar. The projects in all fields of marine science and technology Pentagon announced that there had been no nuclear and, like previous editions, is extensively indexed and related damage or injury in either accident, and that the

Australian Marine Research Directory

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Marine Pollution Bulletin

circumstances surrounding the two incidents were being investigated.

Falkland Islands Penguin Kill The 1982 conflict helped direct public attention in Britain to the fact that East Europeans have been happily fishing off the coast of Argentina for a number of decades in waters lying within 200 miles of the Falkland Islands. This has led to a growing demand that Britain should declare an Exclusive Economic Zone in the area, which has been reinforced following a sudden influx of comparable numbers of Oriental squid fishermen. For some time this campaign made little progress, until in March 1986 Rockhopper Penguins, Eudyptes chrysocome, began to wash up dead on the local beaches, leading to claims that they had starved to death as the result of overfishing. It has been an unusually dry summer in the Falklands, which has resulted in (among other things) widespread fires lasting for months inland, one of which has already devastated at least 6000 acres in West Falkland. It seems possible that this has also affected conditions at sea. The mortality appears to have started among the young penguins when they became due to fledge, and has also occurred among the older immatures and adults as they subsequently became due to return to the shore to moult, when they normally put on much fat but are now thin. The level of mortality apparently compares with that now regularly found at intervals among seabirds in western Europe, amounting to some tens of bodies per kilometre along exposed beaches, while small numbers can also be seen drifting at sea. It seems questionable whether the mortality can be due to overfishing when it appears to involve mainly species of lllex and Loligo, whereas the birds take Teuthowenia. W. R. P. BOURNE

North American News Unique San Francisco Bay-Delta Institute The San Francisco Bay-Delta Aquatic Habitat Institute (AHI) is an independent non-profit corporation designed to assess, protect, and enhance water quality in the San Francisco Bay-Delta. The Bay-Delta is a vital economic and environmental resource, not only for the immediately surrounding area, but also for the agricultural and urban communities of central and southern California. The Bay is also an international shipping centre and an indispensable link in north-south bird migrations. Despite its integral role in the economic and environmental status of the region, the San Francisco Bay-Delta suffers from a paucity of available appropriate research data and from the lack of a comprehensive monitoring and research program to coordinate the disparate pollution efforts conducted around the Bay. AHI has been formed to meet these needs with an independence and strength engendered by a Board of Directors composed of three members from the federal, state, and local regulatory agencies, three members from the discharging communities (municipal, industrial, and 240

non-point source), three members from public interest groups, and one member from the Academic community. This diverse composition ensures the impartiality of the Institute in its role as a fact-finding, not a policymaking, entity. This approach ensures that all interested groups have a voice in the design and development of pollution research and monitoring programs and creates an effective mechanism whereby each group can participate in the technical dialogue when the results of these studies are interpreted. The Institute will function as a permanent coordination focus for use of Bay research and monitoring resources by developing a master plan for these activities. The goal of the plan will be to determine a cause-and-effect relationship between pollutants and their impacts on the Bay-Delta aquatic habitat. As one effort toward achieving this goal, AHI will establish a permanent, Bay-wide data base that will be accessible for general use and for use by regulatory agencies to guide management decisions. Dr Douglas A. Segar, formerly of SEAMOcean, Inc., in Wheaton, Maryland, has been named as Executive Director of the Institute, which has its headquarters in Richmond, California. Although past funding has been primarily from the discharger and government sectors, AHI intends to expand its funding base to include a broader cross-section of industry, government and private sources.

Water Quality Programmes to be Financed by Tobacco Usage The State of Washington has passed a law whereby taxes levied on tobacco products will be used to support water quality programmes. Funds produced by an SO.08/pack cigarette tax and a 16.75% tax on wholesale tobacco products will be placed into the water quality account, which will also receive funds from sales taxes levied on new or existing water pollution control projects and state and local funds. The account, which is guaranteed at $40 million/year through 1989 and $45 million after 1989, will fund the Washington State Department of Ecology to study needs for water quality protection (including groundwater protection, non-point source control, and industrial discharge standards) for state waters not covered by the pre-existing Puget Sound Water Quality Authority. Recommendations from the new study and a proposed water quality management plan for Puget Sound from the Sound Authority are to be submitted to the State Legislature by 1 January 1987. After submission of its report and through to the year 1995, the Department of Ecology .will use the new account to fund water quality efforts according to the following distribution: a maximum of 50% for pollution control facilities discharging into marine waters; 20% or less, for aquifer protection from single pollution sources; 10% or less for freshwater lakes and rivers; and a maximum of 10% for non-point source controls.

Puget Sound Fish Contaminated fish in Puget Sound were featured in the Annual Meeting of the North Pacific International Chapter of the American Fisheries Society held by Canadian and US scientists on 24 March 1986, in Bel-