Research Product

The Pesticide Field Station of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF), an agency of the Department of the Interior, is located at Gulf Breeze, Florida, about 9 km south-east of Pensacola. BCF began a research and monitoring programme in 1958 at Gulf Breeze to study the effects of pesticides on estuarine animals in the laboratory, and to determine the concentrations of polychlorinated pesticides in these animals in many estuaries of the United States. Much information has been obtained on the relative toxicity of various pesticides to clams, oysters, shrimp, fish, and other estuarine animals. At present investigators are pursuing three lines of pesticide research: bioassay, ecological studies and physiological studies. Also, we participate in a nationwide monitoring programme.