The director of Scripps, Tony Haymet, wrote about him that[2]
Ed Goldberg earned the reputation not only as an extraordinary marine chemist, but also as an engaging professor who truly inspired his students. He was always willing to tackle the tough issues facing the marine environment and our harbors and seas are better off due to Ed's enduring dedication and commitment.
Goldberg wrote more than 225 research papers and a number of books, largely concerning ocean geochemistry, marine life in coastal waters, and man's impact on the ocean.
One of Goldberg's earliest studies on ocean pollution concerned sewageinSanta Monica Bay. Goldberg warned of pollution's risk to all ocean life at the 1969 American Geophysical Union conference.
Will it alter the ocean as a resource? Will we lose the ocean?
Later, in the 1970s, Goldberg began the EPA-funded Mussel Watch program, which measured ocean pollution by its effects on shellfish.[1][2][4] His studies led him to push for a ban on tributyltin, a chemical that was used in ship paint for its toxic effects on barnacles but that was poisoning the musselsinSan Diego Bay.[1][2][5] Goldberg also published highly cited works on colloids in ocean water[6] and on pollution from fossil fuel consumption.[7]
A significant innovation in Goldberg's research was the suggestion, implemented in Mussel Watch and now commonplace in marine chemistry, of using mussels to measure pollutant levels. For instance, Mills writes, "Measurements of metals by direct chemical analysis in water and sediment are
limited in reliability. Consequently, after the initial suggestion by Goldberg (1975), many studies have utilised mussels to assess metals in the environment. Mussels have been suggested to be the ideal bioindicator organism in biomonitoring studies due to their sessile filter-feeding life style, coupled with their abilities to accumulate metals to much higher concentrations than those found in water and to not metabolise metals appreciably."[8]
^Goldberg, E. D.; Bowen, V. T.; Farrington, J. W.; Harvey, George; Martin, John H.; Parker, Patrick L.; Risebrough, Robert W.; Robertson, William; et al. (1978), "The Mussel Watch", Environmental Conservation, 5 (2): 101–125, Bibcode:1978EnvCo...5..101G, doi:10.1017/S0376892900005555, S2CID85937128.
^"Scientist Calls for TBT Ban; Boat Paint Chemical Seen as a Threat to Marine Life", Janny Scott and David Smollar, Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1986.