Marine and Coastal Fishes Subject to Impingement by Cooling-Water Intake
 Systems in the Northern Gulf of Mexico:  An Annotated Bibliography

OCS Study MMS 2003-040 

The Minerals Management Service (MMS), Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, announces the availability of a new study report, Marine and Coastal Fishes Subject to Impingement by Cooling-Water Intake Systems in the Northern Gulf of Mexico:  An Annotated Bibliography.

The primary objective of this study was to provide an annotated bibliography of scientific articles on entrainment, entrapment, and impingement of fish by cooling-water intake systems.

Since the early 1970's, cooling-water intakes have been identified as having a potential adverse impact on aquatic organisms because of to impingement/entrapment and entrainment.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a series of new rules to address the impingement and entrainment of fishes and shellfish by cooling-water intake systems on all surface waters of the United States, including the open ocean.  In response to this information need, MMS gathered information about the species of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and about research conducted on the impingement and entrainment of fishes and other organisms in coastal and marine ecosystems.

A total of 31,610 documents were obtained through 432 individual searches, and each database output was reviewed on-line to determine if it contained relevant references.  Almost 200 files containing references with or without abstracts were scrutinized and an alphabetical list of all potentially useful references was prepared.  After the bibliography was completed, references were reviewed again, edited for uniformity, and sorted into four major categories as follows:  (1) studies of fish impingement/entrainment by cooling-water intakes in marine and estuarine environments, (2) studies related to assessment of fish impingement/entrainment by cooling-water intakes, (3) studies related to mitigation measures of fish impingement/entrainment by cooling-water intakes, and (4) other relevant studies related to fish impingement/entrainment by cooling-water intakes.  Finally, a list of all fish species subject to impingement or entrainment mentioned in the abstracts was prepared and additional information, such as maximum length attained and ocean of occurrence, was obtained from literature.

This report is available only in compact disc format.  The discs are available from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, at a charge of $15.00 by referencing OCS Study MMS 2003-040.  You will be able to obtain this report also from the National Technical Information Service in the near future.  Here are the addresses.  You may also inspect copies at selected Federal Depository Libraries.