The Buccaneer Gas and Oil Field Study has been the most comprehensive research project to date concerned with assessing the ecological effects of offshore production activities. It took nearly five years to complete and involved almost 30 individual research groups. All of the raw data have been archived with NOAA's Environmental Data and Information Services, and detailed technical reports have been deposited with the National Technical Information Service so the interested investigator should be able to gain access to them. However, we felt that it would be desirable to present a...

The Eighty-Second National Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from August 29 through September 1, 1976, had as one of its themes the topic of transport processes. One of the sessions related to this theme was "Transport Processes in the Oceans" chaired by R. P. Shaw and R. J. Gibbs. This session was devoted to the study of transport processes and their hydrodynamic modeling in large water bodies such as oceans and lakes; transport of both dissolved and solid material was con- sidered. The interest developed at the session led to the...

Waves critically affect man in coastal regions, including the open coasts and adjacent continental shelves. Preventing beach erosion, designing and building structures, designing and operating ships, providing marine forecasts, and coastal planning are but a few examples of projects for which extensive information about wave conditions is critical. Scientific studies, especially those in- volving coastal processes and the development of better wave prediction models, also require wave condition information. How- ever, wave conditions along and off the coasts of the United States have not been...

Deep-sea manganese nodules, once an obscure scientific curios- ity, have, in the brief span of two decades, become a potential mineral resource of major importance. Nodules that cover the sea floor of the tropical North Pacific may represent a vast ore de- posit of manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper. Modern technology has apparently surmounted the incredible problem of recovering nodules in water depths of 5000 meters and the extraction of metals from the complex chemical nodule matrix is a reality. Both the recovery and the extraction appear to be economically feasible. Exploitation of...

In recent years there has been an increased realization that the casual disposal of wastes can lead to a deterioration in environmen tal quality with substantial impacts on society. The management of waste disposal practices must consider the various alternatives of discharging and decomposing wastes on land, in the atmosphere, and in the marine environment. Up until 1972 ocean dumping was used increasingly to dispose of sewage sludge, industrial wastes, and dredged material. In subsequent years regulations were developed to reduce and minimize ocean dumping. These regulations were prompted...

This book represents a compilation of papers presented at a symposium on the subject "Suspended Solids in Hater." held in Santa Barbara. California. U.S.A .- on March 20. 2] and 22, 1973. The symposium was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and was designed to bring together a group that represented the domi- nant cross section of international research in this area. The idea for the conference originated as ONR recognized a potentially interesting area that, to date. had not had the benefit of a co- ordinating symposium and/or a book published on the specific sub- ject. In addition to...

Estuaries and Wetlands are important coastal resources which are subject to a great deal of environmental stress. Dredging, construction, creation of intertidal wetlands, regulation of fresh- water flow, and pollution are just a few of the activities which affect these coastal systems. The need to predict the effects of these perturbations upon ecosystem dynamics, particularly estuarine fisheries, as well as on physical effects, such as sedimentation and salt intrusion, is of paramount importance. Prediction requires the use of models, but no model is likely to be satisfactory unless...

In July 1972, the U.S. Office of Naval Research identified several areas that it interpreted as being of interest to the U.S. Navy. Four of these research areas were then selected for their special importance in understanding physical processes on the ocean floor. In some of these, a great wealth of data has accumulated over the past two or three decades, but controversy exists in the interpretation of the results. In others, new techniques have re- cently been devised that could lead to the collection and synthesis of new information. There was yet a third area in which little study had been...