The Coastal Resource Coordinator's Bioassessment Manual

PREFACE
This manual has been designed for the use of NOAA's Coastal Resource Coordinators as an
introduction to and a general guide for using bioassessment techniques for evaluating
conditions at hazardous waste sites. It is meant to be a ready reference to help them make
suggestions for or evaluate proposed ecological work plans for these sites. It is not meant to
be a cookbook for work plan development. More detailed information on the use and
applicability of these techniques is available from the CRC technical support staff in Seattle.
The manual has been designed in loose-leaf form so that it can be readily modified as
changes occur in the rapidly developing field of bioassessment or gaps in the information
are identified. An early planned modification will be an expansion of the discussion on
laboratory bioaccumulation methodologies. The users should be aware that this guide is
not all inclusive of the currently available bioassessment methodologies but does include
those methodologies that have been most commonly used at sites of concern to NOAA.
At this time I would like to thank the people, who in addition to the authors, made this
manual possible. Reviewers Edward R. Long, Rebecca Hoff, Nancy Beckvar, Peter Knight,
Sean Morrison, Diane Wehner, Karen Wurst, Waynon Johnson, and Chris Mebane for their
critical comments on earlier drafts of the manual; NOAA Hazardous Materials Response
and Assessment Division librarian, John Kaperick for helping to obtain pertinent
documents; technical editor Charlene Swartzell for making the final version readable;
graphic artist Virginia Curl for cover graphics, and CRC Branch Manager, Alyce Fritz, for
her support and guidance.
Donald A. MacDonald
November 20, 1992
ix July 2003