Activity: Pratical exercise in Marine Pollution Marcia Caruso Bícego– Description and Teaching Materials The project is conduct in the Santos Estuary, located on the Southeastern Brazilian coast. This place is one of the most important industrial regions of South America with more than 1100 industries mainly metallurgical and petrochemical. The largest commercial harbor of South America, the Port of Santos, is also located in Santos Estuary and it represents a potential contamination source. It involves oil, mineral, transportation, and fishery and sand activities. The harbor effluents have been dumped directly into the estuary for several decades leading to contamination of water, sediment and biota. Several contaminants (e.g. petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals) have been introduced into the Santos Estuary as a result of the discharge of untreated industrial effluents and domestic wastes. The aim of this work was to verify the spatial distribution of chemical contaminants (trace metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) in sediment samples of Santos Estuary and adjoining continental shelf. The students collect sediment samples (Figure 1 and Figure 2) in a polluted estuary to be analyzed in the laboratory of the institute. It is not possible to the students to do all the analysis, but they can visit the labs and participate of some demonstration that is done to show them the principal analytical steps. Them they receive the results and in the classroom is done some activities to interpret the results. In this activities they make graphics and realize some statistics. The final activity is make a report about the field work, laboratory analysis and discussion of results. The results can be compared with some published data, from Santos Bay and adjoining Continental Shelf as shown in Figure 3 Goal of Activity : Goal of Activity : to enable the students to evaluate pollutants in a marine environment ContextAudience This activity is used in a pollution marine discipline that is an upper-division required oceanography course. Skills and concepts that students must have mastered Students should have knowledge about oceanographic processes in estuaries and should be familiar with the basics of statistics. In addition, some background in the behavior of organic compound and trace metal in marine sediments. How the activity is situated in the course The field trip is done in the beginning of the semester and the exercise could be done within 6 weeks of the end of the semester after some theory and lab practices.Goals Content/concepts goals for this activity The goal of the activity is to enable the students to evaluate pollutants in a marine environment Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity The studentes will analyse data using some statistical tool. Other skills goals for this activity The students will operate analytical instruments to analyze the contaminats. Polycycli Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) concentration (log ng/g) in some of the samples to exemplify the distribuition in different area of Santos. Examples of references used UNEP, Reference Methods for Marine Pollution Studies, v. 20, 97 pp. Martins et al Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a large South American industrial coastal area (Santos Estuary, Southeastern Brazil): Sources and depositional history, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 63 Hortellani et al A ssessment of metallic element contamination in sediments from the Santos – São Vicente Estuarine System. Quimica Nova, 31 (2008), pp. 10–19 Examples of references used UNEP, Reference Methods for Marine Pollution Studies, v. 20, 97 pp. Martins et al Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a large South American industrial coastal area (Santos Estuary, Southeastern Brazil): Sources and depositional history, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 63 Hortellani et al A ssessment of metallic element contamination in sediments from the Santos – São Vicente Estuarine System. Quimica Nova, 31 (2008), pp. 10–19 Pictures from the field trip