**7. Conclusion**

The Jag Ski provides a unique opportunity to collect hydrographic and environmental data in shallow and remote areas typically inaccessible by traditional watercraft. Aside from its

three bridge resistances. The measured conductance is the reciprocal of the resistance. Finally, the bulk conductivity of water at different salinities is noted from (Weyl, 1964). This

> **Measured Cell Resistance (Ohms)**

Table 1. Measurements used to calibrate the salinity sensor. Bulk conductivity from (Weyl,

Third, the cell constant of the electrodes had to be estimated from the data. As shown in (2), the cell constant can be estimated by dividing the known conductivity by the measured conductance. The average estimated cell constant over all 7 measurements is 0.0867cm-1. The measured conductivity of the water is plotted against the standard model of the

10 71 2784 5.32 188.0 15.6 15 51 2000 3.82 261.8 22.4 20 39 1529 2.92 342.3 29 25 33 1294 2.47 404.6 35.4 30 28 1098 2.10 476.8 41.7 35 25 980 1.87 534.0 47.9 40 22 863 1.65 606.9 53.9

conductivity of seawater using a cell constant of 0.0867 below in Fig. 20.

Fig. 20. Correlation of known conductance of seawater (predicted) to actual data

The Jag Ski provides a unique opportunity to collect hydrographic and environmental data in shallow and remote areas typically inaccessible by traditional watercraft. Aside from its

**Measured Cell Conductance (mS)**  **Bulk Conductivity** 

**at 20° C (mS/cm)** 

last column, then, is the "known" conductivity.

**Digital Pot Resistance (Ohms)** 

**Digital Pot Wiper Setting** 

**Salt content (ppt)** 

1964).

(measured).

**7. Conclusion** 

utility as a hydrographic data collection platform, it is small, inexpensive, and relatively easy to maintain. Where a traditional vessel may require two or more people to launch, operate, and recover, the PWC can easily be attended by one person if needed. With the recent addition of the Portable SeaKeeper system, the Jag Ski's capabilities have expanded tremendously. The ability to map large spatial areas in a relatively small amount of time is very helpful in coastal applications, mainly because it reduces the tidal bias of the collected data. The Jag Ski's speed and ease of deployment will also provide opportunities to perform episodic surveys of coastal waters to determine the effects of storms or other events on the near-surface water chemistry of Mobile Bay, Mississippi Sound, and nearby rivers.

The PILS unit combines low-cost components, including a novel low-cost salinity-measuring circuit to provide a powerful and inexpensive environmental-monitoring capability. The sensor package can readily be modified for other, similar missions. For example, development is underway, using the microprocessor, clock, and salinity sensor, to develop a system to control periodic GPS measurements and satellite transmissions to develop a lowcost drifter to measure surface currents in the open ocean.

### **8. Acknowledgment**

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the following organizations in conducting this work: The University of South Alabama College of Engineering, The University of South Alabama Research Council, and The University of South Alabama University Committee on Undergraduate Research (UCUR) Program. A portion of this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OCE-1058018.

#### **9. References**


**10** 

*Japan* 

**An Innovative Approach to** 

Mariko Mochizuki1, Chihiro Kaitsuka1,

*2Shizuoka University, Shizuoka,* 

Makoto Mori2, Ryo Hondo1 and Fukiko Ueda1 *1Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Tokyo,* 

**Biological Monitoring Using Wildlife** 

Biological monitoring using wildlife is a useful and important method that helps us to understand the degree of contamination in the environment. The book "Our Stolen Future" (Colborn et al., 1996) has become an influential bestseller worldwide; the authors of this book have pointed out issues relevant to the monitoring of the state of environmental pollution using wildlife. However, there are also many criticisms of the content of this book. For example, the designation of the control areas as non–contaminated is very difficult in the studies that use wildlife (Krimsky, 2000). In studies that use wildlife, there is a lack of epidemiological information on age, sex, movement range and detailed feeding habits. For example, the content of cadmium (Cd) in animals increases with age (Sakurai, 1997), even when the animals live in non-polluted areas. This is because Cd has a long biological halflife in animals (Friberg et al., 1974). Thus, knowledge of the age of targeted animals is necessary for accurate monitoring. However, obtaining an estimate of age in wildlife is very difficult. Carnivorous animals have been used frequently for biological monitoring (Harding et al., 1998; Helander, et al., 2009; Kenntner, et al., 2007; Meador et al., 1999) because it is well known that various contaminants are bioaccumulated in carnivorous animals as they move up the food chain. However, detailed information on feeding habits is sometimes difficult to obtain. According to bird guides, the greater scaup (*Aythya marila*) is classified as a carnivorous bird. However, its rate of intake of animal food changes between 45 and 97 % depending on the environment (Kaneda, 1996). In such a case, is it correct to categorize the

Despite the lack of epidemiological information, we have been investigating the degree of contamination of wild birds with inorganic elements such as Cd (Mochizuki et al., 2002a, 2011d; Ueda et al., 1998), chromium (Cr) (Mochizuki et al., 2002c), molybdenum (Mo) (Mochizuki et al., 2002c), thallium (Tl) (Mochizuki et al., 2005) and vanadium (V) (Mochizuki et al., 1998, 1999). However, there is also problem in the use of statistical procedures in studies that use wildlife because the distribution of the data is very wide. Normally distributed data are sometimes not obtained from samples of wildlife (Mochizuki et al., 2010b; Ueda et al., 2009a). The effects of toxic elements have also been investigated under experimental conditions using cultured bacteria (Kadoi et al., 2009), cells (Mochizuki et al., 2011b), and various experimental animals (Mochizuki et al., 2000). However,

biological monitoring is important for the assessment of risk to human health.

**1. Introduction** 

scaup among carnivorous birds?


Winbond. (2007). *W25X80A Datasheet* [Revised 08/09], Available from : <http://www.winbondusa.com/products/Nexflash/pdfs/datasheets/W25X10\_20\_40\_80g.pdf>
