Development of marine indicators in the UK
Background
It has become apparent over the last 2 years, that there is a need for a framework for more effective co-ordination of marine monitoring in the UK. The cost of both collecting marine samples and analysing them according to present day needs and standards is increasing rapidly. At the same time, the number of legal requirements both national and international is increasing, whilst resources in terms of manpower and cash are declining in real terms. Requirements for monitoring are also changing rapidly with new and emerging requirements from OSPAR and EC Directives such as the Water Framework Directive, increasing the possibility of duplication of effort and overlaps. Consequently, there is now a real need to examine our national and international obligations and how these can be met effectively and efficiently.
This need was supported by Michael Meacher (Minister for the Environment) in a letter to Elliot Morley, (Minister for Fisheries) and to the Environment and Fisheries Ministers of the devolved administrations, in which he stated 'What we need is a thorough-going system for monitoring all relevant aspects of the marine environment, so that we can demonstrate not merely that there is a comprehensive system of measures in place, but also how we are performing in implementing them and delivering the objectives'.
The Marine Pollution Monitoring Management Group (MPMMG) was subsequently asked to consider how a more co-ordinated UK marine monitoring and reporting framework could be developed. MPMMG together with IACMST initiated the development of a documented strategy for integrating marine monitoring. It also began to look at the development of simple, understandable indicators of performance that could be clearly communicated to both policy makers and the general public. A workshop was held in Cardiff, in November 2000, which identified a set of 13 issues relevant to the UK marine environment where indicators might be developed, using the DPSIR framework introduced by RIMV in 1995 and adopted by the EEA (Wieringa, 1996). Four of the issues identified, namely hazardous substance, eutrophication, litter and seabed disturbance, fall within Defra's remit to sustain and enhance the marine environment. The former DETR (now Defra) funded a workshop in Edinburgh, May 2001, to develop UK indicators for the first three of these issues. This set the precedent for developing UK marine indicators for the remaining issues. For a copy of the proceedings of this workshop click on the link below:
Workshop Proceedings: Proceedings of the NMMP Indicators Workshop, Edinburgh, May 2001 (PDF, 574 KB)
Subsequently Defra funded a second workshop in February 2001 to develop indicators for seabed disturbance (dredging, disposal, aggregate extraction and fisheries), using the DPSIR/thematic framework, in line with the earlier NMMP indicators-workshop.
Workshop Proceedings: Proceedings of the Seabed Disturbance Indicators Workshop, Tolleshunt Knights, February 2002 (PDF, 332 KB)
The creation of Defra in 2001, brought together a number of Government Departments with interests in marine science, providing an opportunity to maximise and co-ordinate Government funded marine science. The Department produced a strategy for the conservation and sustainable development of the marine environment (entitled Safeguarding our Seas, available on www.defra.gov.uk/environment/marine/stewardship), within which it seeks to improve co-ordination of UK marine monitoring, with the aim of supporting more integrated and coherent assessments of the state of the UK marine environment at regular intervals. The early initiatives of MPMMG and IACMST have now become part of this wider Defra strategy. The first integrated assessment, in the form of a State of the Seas Report, will be produced in 2004 and the marine performance indicators currently under development will contribute to this assessment.
