CONCEPTS OF MARINE SPECIMEN BANKING

For more than a decade environmental specimen banking (ESB) has been a n established approach for monitoring and retrospective environmental survey purposes in a number of developed countries. Specimen banking i s carried out on regional or national scales for various environmental materials. The ecological or problem-oriented approach, as pursued e. g. in Germany or USA has the advantages of a restricted survey and a c lear political mandate. Environmental problems, however, are by no mea ns national or regional issues, since the diversity and dispersion of hazardous substances make environmental monitoring clearly a global af fair. The structuring of our environment suggests that banking should not be limited by national boundaries, but rather be based on eco-syst ematic principles. Such distinct banking efforts should be devoted to the monitoring of physico-chemical aspects of climatic change and air pollution, soil quality, and aquatic monitoring on a world-wide scale. As some experience already exists with specialized banking programs f or marine samples, such as the National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank or t he Mussel Watch Program in the United States, an international marine specimen bank, based on principles of national ESB's, is advocated to be established in due time. Following the recommendations of the 1992 Rio 'Earth Summit' to pursue sustainable development strategies, such an establishment could strongly facilitate efforts concerning pollutio n control and mitigation, overexploitation and mining of ocean resourc es on a regional or global scale. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.