The treat of pollution to the marine environment is becoming more acute with the growing use of sea for commerce and the ever increasing quantity and variety of pollutants and wastes which reach the oceans through rivers and run off from the land.

To monitor the levels of various marine pollutants in the coastal and offshore waters of the country and to assess the health of our seas, a multi-institutional programme called Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction Systems (COMAPS) is under implementation. Based on the data collected from 1991 to 1997, intensive monitoring of pollutants at 25 out of 77 locations designated as hotspots is being done periodically by 11 institutions. The major accomplishments during 1997-98 were :

i) Continuation of data collection of 25 pollution parameters at 77 locations to monitor the level and trend of pollution.

ii) Continuation of intercalibration exercises to ensure the quality data being collected under the programme.

iii) Identification of areas of low, medium and high concentrations of pollutants and intensive monitoring of areas of high concentration of pollutants.

The pollution levels observed during 1997-98 were more or less similar to the observations made during the last year and they were periodically brought to the notice of the concerned State Pollution Control Boards for remedial action.