reproductive potentials typical of most estuarine organisms. Clearly this is one aspect of the oil pollution problem where full assessment of the biological problems depends on sound information on the fate of the introduced oil, particularly on the degree to which oil finds its way into estuarine sediments and on the changes in amount and composition of oil in sediments.

The intertidal areas of estuaries are often characterized by extensive tidal wetlands—salt marshes in temperate latitudes and mangrove swamps in the tropics. These are thought to be in large part responsible for the very high productivity of estuarine environments and are a mainstay of the detritus-based estuarine food chain. Wetlands are vulnerable to dosage by floating oil. Although most experimental evidence shows that marsh grasses suffer little from a single dosage of oil (), oils as different as the light Number 2 fuel oil and the heavy Bunker C fuel oil have caused lethal damage to marsh plants at West Falmouth () and Chedabucto Bay, Canada (). Furthermore, chronic pollution—such as in the vicinity of a refinery effluent or near an oil handling facility—can kill off marsh plants and bare marsh sediments to erosion ().

There is a reasonable basis for concern, yet any statements about the effects of oil on estuarine productivity are, at this stage, strictly conjectural—which underlines the crying need for further research.