Hazardous Substances and Eutrophication

8 April 2016

OSPAR’s Hazardous Substances and Eutrophication Committee (HASEC) met at the beginning of April in Cork, Ireland – the beautiful Emerald Isle. It was a hectic week because as well as addressing HASEC’s usual business, the Committee participants reviewed 16 OSPAR common indicator assessments. These will form a major contribution to OSPAR’s Intermediate Assessment 2017. The draft versions of the assessments were well received and the intention is to finalise the indicators in time for the OSPAR Commission meeting in June.

OSPAR’s Contracting Parties have also been working hard on their national applications of the OSPAR Common Procedure for the Identification of Eutrophication. The Common Procedure is a regular thematic assessment to locate Contracting Parties’ waters that have eutrophication problems, and to assess progress towards the objective of the OSPAR Eutrophication Strategy. The next step is for a Task Group to combine the national reports into an Integrated Report of Eutrophication Status in the OSPAR area; another important constituent of the IA2017 from HASEC.

Image: Cork at sunset by Vincent Moshetti (Flickr)