Survey finds pollution measures slow-acting

The Irish marine environment is in a "very healthy state" but measures to reduce pollution levels are not taking effect quickly enough, according to a major Government survey.

Municipal sewage and agricultural fertilisers are still the main causes of contamination. However, resulting biological change is mainly confined to small areas, is frequently seasonal, and is "reversible", according to the survey.

It was carried out by the Departments of Marine and Natural Resources, and Environment and Local Government, and is due to be published early next year.

The project, which drew on existing information, represents the first major assessment of this State's marine environment, according to the chairman of the inter-departmental steering group, Mr Geoffrey O'Sullivan of the Marine Institute.

It covers the Atlantic, as far as the edge of the continental shelf at the 200-metre depth mark, and the "Irish half" of the Irish Sea. It was undertaken for the OSPAR Convention - otherwise known as the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic - to which Ireland is party.

Britain is conducting a global survey of the Irish Sea as part of an overall study for the OSPAR Convention, which will be published in the year 2000.

Outlining the results at the Marine Institute's Year of the Ocean Conference in Dublin Castle yesterday, Mr Rick Boelens, Marine Institute project team leader, said the effects of increasing human pressures on coastal ecosystems over the last decade were most notable in estuaries and bays close to major towns, and downstream from more industrialised and intensively farmed catchments.

Data shortages hampered efforts to quantify contaminants in rivers and the atmosphere, and current estimates suggest that anti-polluting measures are slow to take effect.

The survey has found that the quality of bathing water is generally very good, but there is still considerable litter on beaches.

The 368-page report, Ireland's Marine and Coastal Areas and Adjacent Seas: an Environmental Assessment, will serve as a baseline, and the exercise will be repeated every five years, according to Mr O'Sullivan.

"It will provide for a more informed debate on the state of our marine environment, and will identify gaps in our research," he added.