Resources

Gulf of Maine Library Collection

Larsen, Peter. Marine Environmental Quality in the Gulf of Maine: A Review. CRC Press. Inc.. 1992.

Human population growth and industrial development in the coastal zone invariably place stress on estuaries and coastal oceans. This has resulted in the nearly universal decline in coastal environmental quality. This trend is expected to continue as an increasing percentage of the world's population concentrates near the coast. In 1970, one half of the U.S. population resided within 150m of the coast. By the year 2000, 75% of the population is expected to live within this same area, adding greatly to the potential for further degradation of coastal waters and marine resources. In this article, an attempt is made to summarize existing information on the environmental quality of the Gulf of Maine and to put it into perspective by making comparisons with other coastal regions. The nature of the data demands that comparisons be made, but it should be pointed out that the ranking of a water body relative to another is not necessarily what is important. This resource uses environmental threats such as trace metals, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, UCM hydrocarbons, marine transportation, and biological effects in its comparison efforts.

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