ABSTRACT
A dedicated scientific community seeks the identification of potential marine stressors. Perhaps the most important of the understudied potential stressors encompass the plant nutrients which form the base of the eutrophication problem, well recognized by national and international agencies but inadequately addressed. The accumulation of plastic debris on the coastal sea floor poses a potential jeopardy to the benthic community through its interference with the exchange of dissolved gases between overlying waters and pore waters. The framers of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships through its ANNEX V were most far-sighted in proposing a total prohibition on the discharge of plastic materials. There are many observable destructive actions of plastic wastes. The monitoring of artificial radionuclides in the environment might be accomplished by "Mussel Watch" strategies in appropriate locations such as the northern seas and in the Mediterranean and North Seas where large-scale reprocessing of nuclear wastes takes place.
