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The levels of four sets of pollutants (heavy-metals, artificial radionuclides, petroleum components, and halogenated hydrocarbons), have been measured in U.S. coastal waters, using bivalves as sentinel organisms. The strategies of carrying out this programme are outlined and the results from the first year's work are given. Varying degrees of pollution in U.S. coastal waters have been indicated by elevated levels of pollutants in the bivalves, which comprised certain species of mussels and oysters and were collected at over one hundred localities.

Data are presented for trace metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), aromatic hydrocarbons and 239'240Pu in Mytilus edulis, M. calif ornianus, and Crassostrea sp. colected in the U.S. Mussel Watch program in 1976 from 62 locations on the U.S. east and west coasts. General similarities in geographical distributions of concentrations were present in all 3 years with at least an order of magnitude elevation of concentrations of Pb, PCBs, and fossil fuel hydrocarbons in bivalves sampled near the larger urban areas. Elevated Cd and ^'^Pu concentrations in bivalves from the central California coast are apparently related to enrichments of Cd and nuclear weapons testing fallout 239'240Pu in intermediate depth water of the North Pacific and upwelling of this water associated with the California Current system. Our data have revealed no evidence of local or regional systematic elevations of environmental concentrations of 239'240Pu as a result of effluent releases from nuclear power reactors.