Baltic Sea's environmental status "still unacceptable"

 Tuesday 3 March 2009

The Baltic Sea's overall environmental status "remains unacceptable" but there are "encouraging signs of improvement", according to a new scientific assessment released by the Helsinki commission (Helcom) at a conference in Finland on Tuesday.

A "slightly decreasing trend" of nitrogen and phosphorous pollution was observed between 1990 and 2006. These pollutants cause eutrophication, which the study found is still prevalent in most parts of the Baltic Sea.

But water quality will only improve if nitrogen and phosphorous pollution are "significantly further reduced  especially from agriculture", the authors warn. The assessment is designed to aid implementation of Helcom's 2007 Baltic Sea action plan, which identified eutrophication as one of four priority issues (EE 15/11/07 http://www.endseurope.com/14266).

Follow-up: Helcom http://www.helcom.fi/home/en_GB/welcome/ and stakeholder conference homepage

http://www.helcom.fi/BSAP/4th/en_GB/Fourth_Stakeholder_Conference/.

See also press release http://www.helcom.fi/press_office/news_helcom/en_GB/EUTRO_assessment/_print/

and assessment executive summary http://www.helcom.fi/stc/files/Publications/Proceedings/bsep115A.pdf.

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