International Agreements
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International & National Agreements: 1998 OSPAR Convention and UK National Marine Monitoring Programme. This programme has been operational as OSPAR since 1992 but was only officially ratified in 1998. The United Kingdom is one of 16 Contracting Parties to the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic. The 1998 OSPAR Convention requires that Contracting Parties shall 'take all possible steps to prevent and eliminate pollution and shall take the necessary measures to protect the maritime area against the adverse effects of human activities so as to safeguard health and to conserve marine ecosystems, and, when practicable, restore marine areas which have been adversely affected'. |
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1. The OSPAR ConventionThe OSPAR Convention achieves this goal through an Action Plan and by implementing five strategies on:
Implementation of the Action Plan and strategies undertaken by five committees and an Assessment and Monitoring Committee (ASMO). The Committees are referred to as the OSPAR second tier. A number of third tier deal with the technical issues. The structure of OSPAR is summarised below. |
Management and advice:
Second Tier Level Committees:
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Strategy Committees
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Third Tier Level Working Groups:
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OSPAR Contracting parties commit monitoring environmental quality throughout the North-East Atlantic under the OSPAR Assessment and Monitoring Programme (JAMP) and the Nutrients Monitoring Programme (NMP). In the United Kingdom monitoring is carried out by the UK National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP) organised by the Marine Pollution Monitoring Management Group MPMMG through its National Marine Monitoring Programme Working Group (NMMP-WG). One of the primary aims of MPMMG is to ensure that the marine environmental monitoring meets national and international requirements and is conducted in a co-ordinated, cost-effective manner.
The NMMP-WG is made up from representatives from all government organisations with statutory marine protection monitoring obligations. These are:
- Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and
Fisheries Organisations
- Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)
- Fisheries Research Services (FRS)
- Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department (SERAD)
- Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland (DARDNI)
Environmental Protection Agencies
- Environment Agency (EA)
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
- Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee is also represented to ensure best co-ordination and minimal overlap with the marine monitoring carried out in the UK by the government organisations with the Statutory marine conservation monitoring obligations. There is also a representative from the Inter Agency Committee on Marine Science and Technology to ensure there is no duplication between groups.
The NMMP-WG has 3 analytical quality control (AGC) sub-groups to ensure strict quality control of data collection and analysis:
- National Marine Chemical AQC (NMCAQC)
- National Marine Biology Analytical Quality Control (NMBAAQC)
- National Marine Ecotoxicology Analytical Quality Control (NMEAQC).
In addition, there is a statistical group, which meets on an ad-hoc basis to support the work of the NMMP. The NMMP meets many of the UK's marine Monitoring commitments under these programmes. Quality Status reports have been prepared for publication in 2000 for the whole region of the North-East Atlantic, and also for five sub-regions. The UK NMMP data has been used extensively for the QSR's.
2. European Commission (EC) Directives
It is recognised that there is a potential for overlap of the monitoring requirements under OSPAR and under EC Directives. Therefore, one of the objectives of the NMMP is to co-ordinate, make optimum use of, and gain maximum information from marine monitoring in the United Kingdom to ensure minimal duplication of effort. Data gathered for the NMMP may also be used to meet some of the monitoring requirements for the EC Dangerous Substances Directive (76/464/EEC), the Shellfish Waters Directive (79/923/EEC), the Shellfish Hygiene Directive (91/492/EEC), the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) and the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC). It is also anticipated that NMMP data will be used to fulfil some of the monitoring requirements of the Water Framework Directive.
3. Plans and Programmes
NMP - Phase 1
In 1987/88, the MPMMG reviewed the monitoring carried out in UK estuaries and coastal waters and concluded that there would be considerable merit in the regular sampling of a network of coastal monitoring stations to meet international monitoring commitments. A spatial survey was initiated in 1993 at a network of 87 monitoring stations in estuarine, intermediate and offshore locations. These sites were monitored for:
- Water quality
- Sediment chemistry
- Bioaccummulation diversity parameters
- Other special surveys.
As laid out in the UK National Marine Monitoring Plan (HMIP, 1994) known as the 'Blue Book'. The results of this survey are reported in 'Survey of the Quality of UK Coastal Waters, 1998'.
NMMP2 - Phase 2
As the data collected between 1993 - 95 was primarily a spatial data set, phase 2 was designed to look more closely at temporal trends. The National Marine Monitoring Programme 2 (NMMP2) focuses on stable depositional sediment trends sites (approx. 110) and looks more closely at:
- Sediment chemistry
- Benthic communities
- Bioaccummulation, and
- Ecological effects methods As laid out in the NMMP monitoring manual known as "the Green Book".
Further Information
1. UK National Marine Monitoring Plan. (HMIP, 1994) 'Blue Book'
2. National Marine Monitoring Programme: Survey of the Quality of UK Coastal Waters. (Marine Pollution Monitoring Management Group, 1998) Collates and summarises the results NMP - phase 1. Note: Three regional reports exist for Scotland, Northern Ireland, and CEFAS, whilst some of the England and Wales detail is included in the Environment Agency's State of the Environment Report 'Holistic Report'.
3. Northern Ireland Regional Report of the National Monitoring Programme(.PDF 772Kb)
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4. 'Green Book' This controlled document details the locations, methods, time windows and frequencies for the components of the NMMP2 survey.
