![]()
Part 1
Setting the Scene
![]()
Chapter 1
Monitoring of Pollutants: A Historical Perspective for the North-East Atlantic Region
Kees J.M. Kramer
Mermayde, Bergen, The Netherlands
1.1 Introduction
The general public had, until the mid 1950s, little or no idea about the âenvironmentâ; it was just there, as it had always been. It was there to be used and exploited. That chemical products entering the sea could be hazardous to man became shockingly apparent in 1956 when in Minamata Bay (Japan) people suffered from a neurological syndrome as a result of eating methyl mercury-contaminated tuna and swordfish. Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962 (Carson, 1962). In this book she focused attention on the environment itself by discussing the biological effects of pesticides. It is considered the start of the environmental movement.
In March 1967 the Torrey Canyon, a 120 000 tons oil tanker, was wrecked on Seven Stones off the Isles of Scilly (UK). Two years later, in 1969, there was a blow-out on Union Oil's Platform A in the Santa Barbara Channel 9 km off the Californian coast (USA). Similar to the April 2010 disaster with BP's Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the environmental effects were huge in all these accidents. In contrast to many pollutants that are dissolved in water or adsorbed to particles, and thus unseen by the naked eye, crude oil and its biological effects are very visible, also to the public. Newspapers reported on these and other pollution events with evident biological effects, like fish kills in the River Rhine and massive bird mortality in Scotland, also in 1969. Public opinion did help to create a climate in which effective legislation was possible and scientific activities in research and monitoring were encouraged. Environmental laws, like the implementation of âStatement of environmental effectsâ, or banning of chlorinated pesticides were imminent. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded within 2 years after the Santa Barbara blow-out (1970).
Scientific research had started to get better information on the input, transport, fate (sinks) of pollutants and of their biological effects (Pearce, 1998). In response to this and to âhelp coordination of research by rapid dissemination of information relating to pollution of the seaâ, the first issue of Marine Pollution Bulletin was published in January 1970. It intended to be an information bulletin (âspreading news of pollutionâ) rather than a scientific journal, and clearly aimed also to inform policy (Anon, 1970).
1.1.1 Definition of Monitoring
In 1977 the International Council of Scientific Union's (ICSU) Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) defined âmonitoringâ as (Holdgate and White, 1977):
This definition still seems valid today. Monitoring is thus a systematic method of collecting data needed for environmental problem solving; it is linked to environmental policy. (National) monitoring in this sense started in most areas not before the early 1970s.
Very often, monitoring programmes are understood as linked to the concentration of harmful substances only. However, for a proper assessment, different variables shall not only include measuring of levels of pollutants (in various compartments, including biota), but also include physical attributes (e.g. salinity, turbidity, fluxes) and biological effects (possibly at several biological organization levels). Species distribution and density have been measured for over a century for fundamental biological research; although in the past the objective was never âmonitoringâ (at most surveys), today these biological variables are the corner stones of describing the biodiversity of a region.
Basic reasoning for monitoring changed over the years. In the mid 1970s it was argued that the first concern was to avoid hazards to human health. It was considered of no importance to monitor, for instance, Hg in coastal waters unless it presented an unacceptable hazard to human health or produced an ecological change. Reduction in the monitoring effort to the barest essentials was thus advocated (Anon, 1975). Today, reasoning stems from a more holistic approach. The concern is reachingâin Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) terminology (see Chapter 3)âGood Environmental Status (GES) and the focus is on the environment. Evaluation and assessment of biological and chemical status and trends have become key environmental management tools.
In this chapter, the centre of attention will be on the historic development of marine monitoring, with a focus on the situation in the North-East Atlantic Ocean, including the North Sea and Baltic seas. This will relate to the definition and purpose of monitoring, relevant international treaties, the context and developments in international institutions, and general concepts like monitoring of different environmental compartments and the need for quality-assured data.
Because of the limited space available, this contribution had to be restricted to the monitoring of hazardous substances in water, sediment and biota. Other fields, such as biological effect monitoring or monitoring of species richness (biodiversity), are not included. As an example for many other groups of pollutants, long-term trends for selected trace metals will be briefly discussed, also in view of the improvement of analytical methods.
1.1.2 Stockholm Conference 1972
The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 5â16 June 1972) is considered a landmark in (marine) monitoring. A Declaration and an Action Plan were adopted. According to the Declaration (Principle 7):
The Action Plan (Recommendation 73) ârecommended that governments actively support, and contribute to international programmes to acquire knowledge for the assessment of pollutant sources, pathways, exposures and risksâ (UNEP, 1972).
The 1972 Stockholm Conference strengthened the partially existing efforts of environmental (marine) monitoring in national and international programmes. Many international organizations, all (becoming) active in the marine monitoring field, each with their own objectives and plans and possibly afraid of competition, used the outcome to better harmonize and structure future monitoring plans and activities.
1.2 International Conventions
Supra-national policies were required to allow combating pollution of the world's oceans and seas to become successful. Hence, a number of international treaties were drafted, subsequently signed and ratified. Focusing mainly on the European situation, the following lists a number of these conventions, that would become instrumental in environmental protection, and that would install monitoring programmes to monitor status and trends of the marine environment.
1.2.1 London Dumping Convention
In 1972 the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (1972, in force 1975), in short the London Dumping Convention (LDC), now called London Convention (LC 72), was signed. This treaty intended to cover the world's oceans and seas. It followed a âblack list/grey listâ approach to regulate ocean dumping: Annex I (black) chemicals were banned (unless in trace amounts), Annex II (grey) listed chemicals for which dumping was restricted. A permanent secretariat is hosted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
1.2.2 Oslo and Paris Conventions, OSPAR Convention
The same year the Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping from Ships and Aircraft, the Oslo Convention (1972, in force 1974), was signed. The area covered consists of the North-East Atlantic and part of the Arctic Ocean, but excluding the Baltic seas. There was a distinction between âblackâ and âgreyâ list chemicals. The limitations of the Oslo Convention by not including land-based sources were taken away 2 years later, when the Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Land-based Sources, the Paris Convention (1974, in force 1978), was signed. It covered the same marine area as the Oslo Convention. The Oslo Commission (OSCOM) and the Paris Commission (PARCOM) shared a joint secretariat in London (OSPARCOM) (OSPAR, 1984).
The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, or OSPAR Convention (1992, in force 1998), is the current legislative instrument regulating international cooperation on environmental protection in the North-East Atlantic. It combines and updates the 1972 Oslo Convention and the 1974 Paris Convention, but decisions and other agreements adopted under those conventions remained applicable unless they are terminated by new measures adopted under the OSPAR Convention. Work carried out under the convention is managed by the OSPAR Commission. The developments of the Oslo and Paris Commissions over the first 25 years (and their relationship with the North Sea Ministerial Conferences) were detailed by Tromp and Wieriks (1994). The OSPAR Convention now regulates (for its geographic region) European standards on marine biodiversity, eutrophication, the release of hazardous and radioactive substances into the seas, the offshore oil and gas industry and baseline monitoring of environmental conditions.
1.2.3 Helsinki Convention
In 1974 the Convention on the Protection of the Baltic Sea Area, the Helsinki Convention (1974, in force 1980), was adopted. It employed the âblackâ and âgreyâ lists of hazardous substances. The Helsinki Commission (or HELCOM: Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission), located in Helsinki, is acting as its governing body. Also, in the light of political changes in the late 1980s, a new Helsinki Convention was signed in 1992 (in force 2000). Its first 20 years were reviewed by Helsinki Commission (1994). The convention now covers the whole of the Baltic Sea area, including inland waters and the water of the sea itself and the sea-bed. Measures are also taken in the whole catchment area of the Baltic Sea to reduce land-based pollution.
All these conventions aimed and aim at the regulation of inputs, to carry out baseline studies (present status), to monitor for trends and to carry out inter-calibrations between contracting parties to warrant quality data.
1.2.4 Bonn Agreement
Focused on discharges of oil and other substances into the North Sea region in 1969 is the Agreement for Co-operation in Dealing with Pollution of the North Sea by Oil, the Bonn Agreement (1969, in force 1969). This treaty was superseded by the Agreement for Cooperation in Dealing with Pollution of the North Sea by Oil and other Harmful Substances (1983, Bonn Agreement, in force 1989). Now parties were required to jointly develop and establish guidelines for joint action and to provide information on pollution incidents. Developments were discussed on the occasion of its 40th anniversary (Bonn Agreement, 2009). One of the implementation instruments of the Bonn Agreement is the ongoing aerial surveillance programme, which started in 1986 to monitor and assess trends in levels of oil inputs into the marine environment (Carpenter, 2007).
1.2.5 MARPOL
Recognizing the threat of pollution of the seas by oil from shipping, in 1954 the UK organized a conference on oil pollution which resulted in the adoption of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, the OILPOL Convention (1954, in force in 1958). It primarily addressed pollution resulting from routine tanker operations. The Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO, since 1982 the IMO) organized in 1973 the International Conference on Marine Pollution in London, which led to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, MARPOL (1973, which did, however, not get into force). In 1978, it was revised by the MARPOL Protocol, and the combination of the convention and protocol led to the MARPOL 73/78 treaty (1978, in force 1983). Its worldwide objective was to preserve the marine en...
