Background of the CCS project:

An unofficial and semi-continuous project started in 1980 at Millersville University, PA, and involving:

the United Nations Development Programme, and
the Institute of Marine Affairs, Chagaramas, Trinidad (July 1980 to July 1982)
- expert services in marine geology and coastal engineering; some results published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin and presented at the 10th Caribbean Geological Conference in Carthagena de los Indes, Colombia, 1983
the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Conservation and Cultural Affairs, and
the University of the Virgin Islands (1986),
- contractual research on Toxic Substances in the Coastal Environment of the USVI
  Results presented at the 12th Caribbean Geological Conference in St Croix, USVI, 1989.
the United States Information Agency ( Barbados, Dominica, July, 1989)
- Environmental Education Workshop and public presentations in Barbados
- Radio interview, discussions and presentations
Two field courses conducted by Dr. Ben Oostdam and Professor Paul Billeter in Trinidad and Tobago in January, 1992, and at
Hofstra University's Marine Laboratory (HUML), Jamaica for 21 Maryland High School teachers in July, 1992 .
- The participants interviewed local visitors of beaches in Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica.
- Results were presented at the 13th Caribbean Geological Conference in Cuba, August 1992.
Environmental Science Research Associates funded the four prizes awarded in the 1995 C.C.S. Questionnaire/Contest dealing with public perceptions of coastal area management on the Caribbean Islands. (..and again funded the 1996 questionnaire/contest on Natural Hazard Emergency Management)
- Results were presented at the 14th Caribbean Geological Conference in Trinidad, July 1995,
  and was presented at the Second Caribbean Conference on Natural Hazards
  held in Kingston, Jamaica, in October 1996
- A profusion of graphs and references related to Caribbean coastal hazards and problems, tourism, marine pollution, environmental education, marine protected areas, etc. was 'left over' and did not fit in our paper. What to do? Fortunately, came to our very timely rescue....

----The World Wide Web...into which most elegant and worldwide filing system we deposited not only our own excess 'stuff', in the form of our Caribbean Coastal Studies homepage, but to which we also linked - with the help of our students - the many useful documents already available on the WWW as well as numerous 'gray literature' documents and newspaper articles, photographs and maps which we assiduously scanned..
- We then followed a suggestion by Dr.Gillian Cambers to actually visit the Caribbean and talk with the experts in person (not a bad idea since our deans failed to support our fieldcourses)
The first visit was March 11-15, 1996, to Jamaica, followed by the second, May 23 - June 6, to Dominica and Barbados with side-trips to Guadeloupe and St.Lucia. Other visits will follow, d.v.
Stay tuned for more of our narratives of adventures and scans of useful materials.
Happy surfing !!

We thank you for reading this and invite your comments and active participation. New contacts and links, as well as contributions of reports, reprints, tables and graphs suitable for inclusion are very welcome and may be transmitted to :

first version: October 1995; second version: April 2, 1996: third version: July 15, 1996; reorganized: January 13, 1999; BLO