Baseline marine biological survey at Roi-Namur sewage outfall, United States Army Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1997 (NCEI Accession 0000630)

Ultimately, the extended outfall was to be connected to a new sewage treatment facility that would discharge primarily treated effluent. Because of a concern that this discharge might adversely impact the coral-reef community surrounding the end of the new outfall, a baseline marine biological survey was to be conducted prior to start-up of the new sewage treatment facility. As planned, the results of this survey would provide a baseline against which the results of future surveys could be compared in order to determine whether a balanced community of indigenous species had been maintained at the site during operation of the facility.

If not, conversion to secondary treatment at the facility would need to be considered. The first resurvey was planned to occur one year after start-up of the new sewage treatment facility with subsequent resurveys planned for every five years thereafter. In August 1997, biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) conducted the baseline marine biological survey in the vicinity of the Roi-Namur outfall.

For the National Oceanographic Data Center, interest in the report focuses on the marine element. Data tables from marine surveys of reef fishes, corals, other macroinvertebrates, and algae that exist in those habitats are provided.