OSPAR
The region covered by the monitoring programme is the North-East Atlantic which, in turn, is divided in five regions: Arctic Waters (Region I), the Greater North Sea (Region II), the Celtic Seas (Region III), the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast (Region IV) and the Wider Atlantic (Region V). Persistent pollutants are measured to a varying extent in the different regions. The most commonly represented are PCBs, tributyltin, mercury and polyciclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The Commission has published an extensive Quality Status Report in 2000. The QSR 2000 will synthesise the information contained in five regional Quality Status Reports (QSRs). Download reports |
The
Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East
Atlantic (OSPAR Convention) was signed in 1992. In 1994 the OSPAR
Commissions agreed to develop a new joint monitoring programme for
the maritime area of the Oslo and Paris Conventions and to update
the Joint Monitoring Programme of the Oslo and Paris Commissions
and the Monitoring Master Plan of the North Sea Task Force. The
new joint monitoring programme is called the 'Joint Assessment and
Monitoring Programme (JAMP)'. The OSPAR convention has been signed
by: Belgium, Denmark, European Union, Finland, France, Germany,
Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain
and Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.