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The habitats and biodiversity of the Black Sea ecosystem greatly deteriorated by the 1990s as lacking industrial, agricultural and coastal zone management policies and enforcement in the littoral states resulted in numerous pollution problems. Consequently Black Sea pollution became a truly regional environmental problem in terms of initiatives needed to save the ecosystem. The focus of the present study is to evaluate the impact of marine scientific institutions on Black Sea environmental policies in Russia and the Ukraine during the Soviet regime and after the collapse of the USSR; specifically the role of marine scientific institutions in fostering Black Sea pollution abatement will be examined. The analysis is focused on institutions that conducted Black Sea research during the Soviet Union and continued to function after its collapse either as Russian or Ukrainian Institutions. The central question evaluated is how the fall of communism impacted the role of marine scientific institutions on the state's approach towards combating Black Sea pollution. This study will consider whether factors associated with the post-communist transition led to a reduction in the overall influence of the scientific community or if external/ transnational connections made integrated research, collaboration and regional policy influence stronger. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]