Working Group on Monitoring and on Trends and Effects of Substances in the Marine Environment (MIME)

26 November 2018

With OSPAR’s Intermediate Assessment 2017 now published, MIME might have anticipated a quieter year, but in fact the experts were busier than ever during their November meeting in Copenhagen. MIME and ICES experts are together making great progress in developing the new CEMP assessment web-application to replace the existing web-application. We hope that HASEC will receive a demonstration in March 2019, and the final CEMP annual assessment will be presented in the new web-application next summer.

Preparing for OSPAR’s next Quality Status Report (QSR) assessment in 2023 was a big driver for MIME’s work this year. Simon Wilson from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) joined MIME and collaborated on assessment procedures, including discussing extraction and compilation of relevant data for use in the new web-application. The aim is to determine methods and processes for including AMAP’s Region I information and data for the QSR 2023.

MIME experts focused much of their efforts on assessment values for contaminant concentrations in sediment, fish and shellfish. Some existing assessment criteria were reviewed and revised and new criteria were developed and will be trialled in the annual CEMP assessment 2019. Establishing robust assessment values is very important for OSPAR indicator assessments in the QSR and for assessing progress towards good environmental status in the MSFD. Two new contributions for the QSR were also proposed. France is leading the development of a case study applying the integrated biological effects approach1, and Germany is leading development of a new fish disease index indicator.

Finally, Contracting Parties were very happy to re-elect Dag Øystein Hjermann (Norway) as the Chair and Martin Mørk Larsen (Denmark) as the Vice-Chair for 2019-2021.


1OSPAR publication 2016/678, Trial application of the OSPAR JAMP Integrated Guidelines for the Integrated Monitoring and Assessment of Contaminants