unlikely however, that the source of pollution for eastern Bonasse Beach in this instance was anthropogenic. This was because there was no outflow to the nearshore water during sample collection from a river and a drain, which were both identified as potential land based sources of pollution for eastern Bonasse Beach. The highest coliform bacteria levels in this instance were more apt to be because of very turbid water, ranging from 65 to 128.33 NTU on this day, at eastern Bonasse Beach. The estimated speed of the westerly flowing longshore current on this day was also generally the fastest recorded at eastern Bonasse Beach, ranging from 18 to 36 cm per second. Nearshore faecal coliform levels at Station 4 were also highest at 400 and 126 CFU/100 ml of sample when the water was most turbid at 128.33 and 124.67 NTU, respectively. Coelho (1999) found that turbidity peaks in samples were accompanied by peaks in et al. microbial contamination, while studying the dynamics of microbial contamination at a marine recreational site. Coliform bacteria are often more prevalent in turbid waters because they live in soil and can attach to sediment particles. There are theories which have associated Orinoco River discharge with sediment transport in the Gulf of Paria (Gay, 2001). Joint Amazon and Orinoco River plume waters extend thousands of kilometres into the Caribbean and western tropical north Atlantic (Müller-Karger et al., 1989; Johns 1990). The Amazon and Orinoco plume is highly turbid and contains et al., sediments and coloured dissolved organic matter (Hu 2004; Del Vecchio and et al., Subramaniam, 2004). Johns (2014) used monthly Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer et al. (MODIS) ocean colour composites between January and September 2009 to illustrate the dispersal of the Amazon and Orinoco River plumes. The January image showed a coastal river plume with a relatively high pigment concentration entering the Caribbean south of 12° N. Johns (2014) indicated that this pattern was typical for this time of year and et al. showed the impact of the mixture of Amazon and Orinoco River plume waters on the coasts of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, and the southernmost Lesser Antilles islands around Grenada.
unlikely however, that the source of pollution for eastern Bonasse Beach in this instance was anthropogenic. This was because there was no outflow to the nearshore water during sample collection from a river and a drain, which were both identified as potential land based sources of pollution for eastern Bonasse Beach. The highest coliform bacteria levels in this instance were more apt to be because of very turbid water, ranging from 65 to 128.33 NTU on this day, at eastern Bonasse Beach. The estimated speed of the westerly flowing longshore current on this day was also generally the fastest recorded at eastern Bonasse Beach, ranging from 18 to 36 cm per second. Nearshore faecal coliform levels at Station 4 were also highest at 400 and 126 CFU/100 ml of sample when the water was most turbid at 128.33 and 124.67 NTU, respectively. Coelho et al. (1999) found that turbidity peaks in samples were accompanied by peaks in microbial contamination, while studying the dynamics of microbial contamination at a marine recreational site. Coliform bacteria are often more prevalent in turbid waters because they live in soil and can attach to sediment particles. There are theories which have associated Orinoco River discharge with sediment transport in the Gulf of Paria (Gay, 2001). Joint Amazon and Orinoco River plume waters extend thousands of kilometres into the Caribbean and western tropical north Atlantic (Müller-Karger et al., 1989; Johns et al., 1990). The Amazon and Orinoco plume is highly turbid and contains sediments and coloured dissolved organic matter (Hu et al., 2004; Del Vecchio and Subramaniam, 2004). Johns et al. (2014) used monthly Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ocean colour composites between January and September 2009 to illustrate the dispersal of the Amazon and Orinoco River plumes. The January image showed a coastal river plume with a relatively high pigment concentration entering the Caribbean south of 12° N. Johns et al. (2014) indicated that this pattern was typical for this time of year and showed the impact of the mixture of Amazon and Orinoco River plume waters on the coasts of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, and the southernmost Lesser Antilles islands around Grenada.
Bacteriological_Water_Quality_Surveys_at_Bonasse_and_Fullerton-1.docx