CONTAMINANTS IN SEAWATER AROUND ENGLAND AND WALES - RESULTS FROM MONITORING SURVEYS, 1990-1992

Seawater monitoring surveys were conducted between 1990 and 1992 in the waters around England and Wales. In the North Sea and English Channel these were undertaken as part of the internationally coordinated Monitoring Master Plan (MMP) initiated by the North Sea Task Force, on the west coast similar monitoring was conducted in anticipation of the recently established UK National Monitoring Programme (NMP). Measurements were made for total hydrocarbons, hexachlorocyclohexanes, triazine herbicides (atrazine and simazine), organotin compounds and a range of trace metals. The stations established under the MMP (which now also incorporates MMP sites) are situated in estuarine, and intermediate/offshore areas, and the results are discussed in terms of this distribution.