Report of the Working Group on Marine Sediments in Relation to Pollution (WGMS)

A highlight was the insight in pollution in the Barents Sea presented by Russia. Concerning the state of the ecosystem, WGMS, with other groups, recognises that new methods for estimating sediment contamination that reflect the risk of sediments rather than only a “concentration” are emerging. Another way of measuring will not affect the ecosystem of course, but it may influence the ranking (4, 5, 6). 

This measurement of activities of contaminants, expressed as free dissolved concentrations in the water phase, is an important new methodology that may be the key for a contaminant indicator for sediment (6, 7). Following the WGMS TOR that suggested an intercalibration, and the wish in OSPAR for a survey on Passive Sampling, MCWG and WGMS, developed a program that includes both. Results are already foreseen for their next meeting in 2007 (6).