LOOP Marine and Estuarine Monitoring Program, 1978-95. Volume 4: Zooplankton and Ichthyoplankton

This is Volume 4, Zooplankton and Ichthyoplankton, of a six volume set that includes: Volume 1: Executive Summary; Volume 2: Water Chemistry; Volume 3: Physical Hydrography; Volume 4. Zooplankton and Ichthyoplankton; Volume 5: Demersal Nekton; and Volume 6. Sediment Quality. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) facilities in coastal Louisiana provide the United States with the country's only Superport for off-loading deep draft tankers. The three single-point mooring (SPM) structures connected by pipelines to a platform mounted pumping station are located west of the Mississippi River delta, 30 kilometers southeast of Belle Pass in the Gulf of Mexico, in 36 meters of water, where the offshore depth contours fold landward. Pumping stations offshore and at the land-based Fourchon Booster Station move the off-loaded crude via subsurface pipeline to a storage facility located in the intermediate marsh zone of the northern Barataria Bay watershed. The proposed construction and use of these facilities in an environmentally sensitive area led to questions about various consequential environmental impacts. An environmental monitoring program was developed to protect the area. This report is the zooplankton and ichthyoplankton component in a series of reports that analyze the impacts of LOOP construction, operation, and maintenance on the estuarine/marine environment.