Marine Litter Autumn 2019 meeting

OSPAR’s marine litter group (ICG-ML) met in Wexford, Ireland in November 2019 to discuss OSPAR’s marine litter monitoring and assessment work as well as progress on the Marine Litter Regional Action Plan (RAP).

The meeting was a hugely productive four days, with discussions around OSPAR’s marine litter operational objectives, ICG-ML’s contributions to OSPAR’s Quality Status Report, initial thinking on the review of the ML RAP, and further progression of OSPAR’s work to reduce pellet loss in the marine environment.

It is a time of change for ICG-ML as they say goodbye to Stefanie Werner (Germany), the long running co-convenor of the group who is stepping down after a colossal eight years in the role! OSPAR would like to thank Stefanie for all her hard work and dedication steering OSPAR’s marine litter work, as the ‘Mother of the RAP’ we wouldn’t be where we are without you! Luckily OSPAR’s marine litter work will be in safe hands with the appointment of the new co-convenor, Pedro Sepulveda (Portugal). Pedro will join Mareike Erfeling (The Netherlands) in steering the future work of ICG-ML. Best of luck to the two of them!