Improving EEA marine indicators: a review of their performance now and in the future Trine Christiansen Colleagues in ETC/Water Eva Royo Gelabert

2 A bit of history... New ETC/Water started in Janurary 2007 Roughly 10 new people and institutions working on EEA indicators. A review of existing work was necessary to establish a baseline and a strategy for future work. Indicator scoping report: Improving EEA marine indicators: a review of their performance and next steps Authors: ETC/W and EEA

3 Why do we care about indicators? Indicators are the basis of information held at the EEA They are used as the foundation for all EEA reports. Governs the information that we request from Member States Types of indicators: Core set indicators (regularly updated indicators) that cover aspects of eutrophication, fisheries and chemical pollution and bathing water quality Specialized indicators to address oil pollution, climate change, and biodiversity

4 EEA definition: An indicator is an analysis of a data set designed to address a specific policy question. Example: Is the use of commercial fish stocks sustainable? Key messages In the NE Atlantic, about one third of assessed stocks are outside safe biological limits. In the Mediterranean, about half of the assessed stocks are fished outside safe biological limits. In the Black Sea no stocks are assessed. Key messages are followed by an assessment

5 Indicator scoping report has adressed: Relevance of policy question Relevance of data used in analysis Data coverage Methodology But not the assessments!

6 Eutrophication: nutrients and chlorophyll-a (CSI 21 and 23) Highly relevant indicators linked to Nitrates, UWWT, WF and MSF Directives Poor temporal and spatial data coverage No targets implemented making it difficult to address severity of problems Only partial description of problems related to eutrophication

7 Improvements Data coverage in the coastal zone: Strengthen link to WFD monitoring=> WISE SoE reporting process. Implement reference conditions as they become available to allow judging distance to a target. Integrate remotely sensed chl-a into the CSI023 indicator. Chl-a indicators - North Sea %20%40%60%80%100% Globcolour / Marcoast equivalent indicator EEA indicator % of pixels Decrease No trend Increase Example of preliminary comparison in the North Sea produced by MarCoast Trend analysis of in-situ data Trend analysis of remotely sensed data

8 Hazardous substances and oil pollution Candidate indicator on heavy metals and toxic organic substances in marine species. Two oil pollution indicators: Discharge of oil from refineries Accidental oil spills and illegal discharges of oil at sea

9 Improvements We hope that you will support the adoption of the indicator on chemicals into EEA Core Set and in this way establish regularly updated pan-European assessments We are hoping to work with EMSA in the future to incoorporate earth observation information on illegal operational discharges at sea.

10 Fisheries and Aquaculture Status of marine fish stocks Fishing fleet capacity Attempt to describe fisheries pressure by measuring power, numbers and size of fishing vessels Aquaculture production Tracks aquaculture production

11 Problems and Improvements Indicator adresses a very relevant problem but using inadequate data Data on direct effort and pressure such as days at sea, fleet activities, and gear type will be included. Policy questions: Is current level of aquaculture production sustainable? What is the environmental performance of aquaculture production? Better reflection of environmental impact i.e. nutrient inputs. Better assessment of genetic pollution, alien species, or parasites as data become available. Fishing fleet capacityAquaculture

12 Climate change impacts Based on historical data and earth observation data. Straight forward to update => planned incorporation into EEA Core Set in

13 Northward movement of marine species Northward movement is occuring in the marine environment. Phenomena that occurs on a very large scales and requires targeted observations. Collaboration with research insitutions such as SAHFOS is required. Most data sets cover the north Atlantic region. More work is needed by the EEA to identify whether other datasets are available in other areas.

14 Biodiversity Sea grasses in coastal waters: For SEBI 2010 Preparation of dossier on availale informaiton Collaboration with WFD inter-callibration group to provide basis for a pan-European assessment Marine trophic index Shows reduction in amount of large fish in the ocean. Based on catch statistics and assigning trophic levels to fish catches

15 New Indicators Water Framework Directive:biological indicators phytoplankton species composition Benthic invertebrate fauna Habitat building species GMES Water column temperature and sea ice

16 Review of data and methodology for 14 EEA indicators GOODADEQUATEPOOR Indicator policy question compared to information used 111 Sea grasses 2 fishing fleet capacity aquaculture production Data coverage7 Accidental oil spills Fishing fleet capacity Aquaculture production Sea surface temperature Sea level rise Sea grasses Bathing water quality 5 Haz. substances Oil discharge Status of fish stocks Northward movement Marine trophic index 2 Nutrients and chlorophyll in coastal, transitional and marine waters

17 Priorities Future indicator work will emphasize Fishing fleet capacity Aquaculture production Improving data coverage on nutrients and chlorophyll-a Improving data coverage in the Mediterranean and Black Seas

18 Can you share with the EEA and ETC/W the need for: Improving and further developing the existing suite of indicators? The suggested prioritisation for improvements: fishing fleet capacity and aqua culture production (more appropriate data needed)? Nutrients and chlorophyll-a (poor data coverage)? Improving data availability for the Black and Mediterranean Seas? Are you ready to support the sugeested improvements by Annually submitting the data needed to ensure adequate coverage? Participating in country review of the annual indicator updates?