Marine Ecosystems Research Department - jamstec japan agency ...
Marine Ecosystems Research Department - jamstec japan agency ...
Marine Ecosystems Research Department - jamstec japan agency ...
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JAMSTEC 2002 Annual Report<br />
<strong>Marine</strong> <strong>Ecosystems</strong> <strong>Research</strong> <strong>Department</strong><br />
Fig. 9 Oyster rafts deployed for tests (made up of black buoys<br />
and rope) and suspended oyster spats.<br />
Personal <strong>Research</strong><br />
<strong>Research</strong> on evaluating deep seawater quality<br />
Period: FY-FY<br />
There are more than ten deep seawater pumping<br />
facilities in Japan, and several more are due for completion<br />
this fiscal year, while many other local governments<br />
are currently examining plans to install these<br />
facilities. Similar facilities are also operating overseas,<br />
and other countries including South Korea are looking<br />
into their establishment.<br />
One feature of deep seawater is its purity, and this<br />
makes it extremely useful as raw material in food and<br />
drinking water. Today there are many products using<br />
deep seawater on the market. In this light, deep seawater<br />
is becoming increasing important from the perspective<br />
of safety and reliability in relation to environmental<br />
and dietary issues, but we do not have a clear<br />
understanding about these aspects of deep seawater.<br />
In this research we study deep seawater brought up<br />
from the pumping facilities, and examine methods of<br />
evaluating this water for harmful microbes and<br />
endocrine disrupters (environmental hormones) to<br />
ensure its safe utilization.<br />
This is the final year of the project, so our evaluation<br />
of harmful microbes and endocrine disrupters is based<br />
on our work over the past two years. Until last fiscal<br />
year our survey sites were limited to Japan, but this<br />
year our survey also included South Korea. Figure <br />
shows the survey sites and depth of the water collected.<br />
Regarding harmful microbes, we measured the total<br />
count and plate count, and analyzed the genetic makeup<br />
of pathogens from human-caused contamination.<br />
From this, we confirmed the cleanliness of deep seawater<br />
relative to surface water.<br />
As for endocrine disrupters, we analyzed our<br />
research results up to last fiscal year for dioxins,<br />
which are viewed as legally important, and highly<br />
toxic human-caused pollutants. From this, we confirmed<br />
that the level of dioxins in deep seawater is less<br />
than / of the standard value (environmental standard,<br />
and water quality standard for drinking water).<br />
As mentioned before, deep seawater is often used as<br />
a raw material for drinking water and food, and the<br />
safety of deep seawater at the surveyed facilities was<br />
confirmed by our research.<br />
Studies on the transport process of eggs and larvae<br />
in coral reef regions<br />
Period: FY-FY<br />
In recent years coral communities (species) in coral<br />
reef regions have tended to shift northward with high<br />
seawater temperatures, and the Kuroshio Current<br />
Kume Island, Okinawa<br />
Okinawa Deep Seawater<br />
<strong>Research</strong> Institute<br />
(15m, 612m)<br />
Offshore Goseong,<br />
Gangwon, South Korea<br />
Collected by ship<br />
Kumaishi, Hokkaido<br />
Deep seawater<br />
pumping facility<br />
(5m, 330m)<br />
Namerikawa, Toyama<br />
Toyama Fisheries<br />
Experimental Station<br />
(17m, 321m)<br />
Muroto, Kochi<br />
Kochi Deep Seawater<br />
<strong>Research</strong> Institute<br />
(17m, 320-344m)<br />
Yaizu, Shizuoka<br />
Shizuoka Fisheries<br />
Experimental Station<br />
(26m, 397m, 687m)<br />
Fig.10 Survey sites and depth of deep seawater collected.<br />
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