CURRENT ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE NATIONAL-BIOMONITORING-SPECIMEN-BANK

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been inv olved in biological environmental specimen banking activities since 19 79. These activities, which are known collectively as the National Bio monitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB), include the banking of a variety of s pecimens (human liver, sediment, mussels/oysters, fish tissue and mari ne mammal tissues) from several different projects supported by differ ent government agencies. The two most recent projects, the Alaska Mari ne Mammal Tissue Archival Project (AMMTAP) and the National Marine Mam mal Tissue Bank (NMMTB), focus on the collection, banking and analysis of marine mammal tissues and they are part of a comprehensive plan to address marine mammal monitoring, specimen banking and quality assura nce of analytical measurements associated with contaminant analyses in marine mammals.