The bacteriological impact of fish waste dumping in the ocean was eval
uated by comparing heterotrophic bacterial counts for seawater and sed
iment at the dump site with those from a control site. Prior to dumpin
g, fish waste contained 3.0 x 10(7) bacteria g-1. Seawater near the oc
ean floor (bottom water) and sediment from the dump site contained 4.1
x 10(2) bacteria ml-1 and 2.2 x 10(6) bacteria g-1, respectively. Bot
tom water and sediment samples from the control site contained signifi
cantly lower bacterial counts (< 10(2) bacteria g-1 and 6.1 x 10(4) ba
cteria g-1, respectively) than the dump site samples. For the five aer
obic media tested, significant differences in bacterial counts occurre
d only for the fish waste samples. Anaerobic bacterial counts, for all
samples except fish waste, were slightly less than the aerobic bacter
ial counts.