The results of a new report from the annual monitoring project, which monitors pollution and the state of the marine environment around Iceland, show little change from previous years, for example there is little evidence that the concentration of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants is growing in the sea around the country. This can be read from the report Monitoring of the Marine Biosphere around Iceland in 2004-2005 which came out on IFL today.
The report presents the results of an annual monitoring project led by the Environment Agency and funded by the Ministry for the Environment. The aim of the project is to fulfill Iceland's obligations regarding the Oslo and Paris Agreements (OSPAR), as well as AMAP (Artic Monitoring Assessment Program). The monitoring measures various inorganic trace elements and chloro-organic substances in cod and mussels, but these organisms were collected around the country in 2004 and 2005. The results of the measurements described in these reports are a continuation of monitoring measurements that began in 1990.
As before, the concentration of heavy metals in cod and mussels in Iceland is usually measured at or below the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) reference values, with a few exceptions. Thus, for example, cadmium is still relatively high in the marine environment in Iceland, which seems to have a natural geological explanation, as there is no evidence of man-made cadmium pollution.
A comparison with other sea areas shows that the concentration of persistent organic pollutants in the marine environment around Iceland is among the lowest measured in nearby sea areas.
Further information is provided by Eva Yngvadóttir, chemical engineer at IFL.
Email: eva@rf.is phone: 530 8600.