The major wastewater discharge pipes in southern California empty into the ocean at depths of 60 to 100 m. For this reason it is thought that deepwater organisms would be the first to be affected by wastewater pollution. A major problem in studying the effects of wastewater pollution on deepwater marine life is the difficulty in directly observing the organisms in their natural environment. One way of solving this problem is to send submersibles with human passengers to the bottom to investigate the marine life that is actually found in the vicinity of the pipe. Submersibles have been used to study wastewater effects at Howe Sound, British Columbia, and at Oxnard, California. Several sanitation districts in southern California have used submersibles in the past to investigate the structure of the discharge pipes, but there has been little effort to determine what organisms are actually found around the pipes. The objective of this study is to identify the larger species of marine life that are associated with the 8,000- and 11,000-m wastewater discharge pipes of the Hyperion Treatment Plant (Los Angeles City Sanitation District) and note observable discharge pipe effects.

Depth range
10- 100 m

Mesophotic “mentions”
0 x (total of 5381 words)

Classification
* Presents original data
* Focused on 'mesophotic' depth range
* Focused on 'temperate mesophotic ecosystem'

Fields
Biodiversity
Disturbances
Community structure

Focusgroups
Fishes
Overall benthic (groups)

Locations
USA - Continental Pacific Ocean

Platforms
Manned Submersible
SCUBA (open-circuit or unspecified)