Together against marine litter

The countries bordering the North-East Atlantic have come together to combat marine litter. The countries agreed on a regional action plan at the annual meeting of the OSPAR Convention in Cascais (Portugal) which came to a close today. The bundle of measures contained in the action plan will ensure that in future considerably less litter enters North East Atlantic and also that some of the litter already in the sea is removed. The North Sea also belongs to the North-East Atlantic.

Among the causes of marine litter are plastic packaging material discharged into the sea via rivers, material left on beaches after recreational activities, abandoned plastic fishing equipment and waste from shipping, which all often lead to adverse impacts on marine animals and sea birds.

Agreed measures include the appropriate disposal of shipping waste in ports, the reduced use of microplastics and the development of educational material. In addition to this, the use of more effective cleaning measures will be expanded. One measure in particular, the Fishing for Litter initiative, encourages fishermen not to throw litter they have caught in their nets overboard but instead to dispose of it in ports. Moreover, from a Federal Government perspective, the regulated disposal of waste on land is a key component for the reduction of marine litter at Länder level.

Gunther Adler, State Secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry, emphasised: "The growing level of litter in our seas presents a massive threat to our marine ecosystems. It is high time for us to take concrete steps to combat this problem. The OSPAR regional action plan is an important step in the right direction. Now we must do everything we can to ensure that a regional action plan is adopted within the framework of the Baltic Sea Cooperation HELCOM in the first half of 2015."

The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive sets all EU member states the target of achieving a good environmental status in all European seas by 2020 and lists combatting marine litter as a key component. Germany will play a pioneering role in the fight against marine litter at European level. At the marine litter conference in April 2013, which was organised by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) on behalf of the Federal Environment Ministry together with the European Commission, regional action plans were adopted for four European marine regions.

UBA President Maria Krautzberger stated: "The regional action plans of the international marine conservation agreement provide us with a good foundation for gradually reducing the volume of waste in our seas. It is important now that all European marine regions work together. This is the only way we can come closer to achieving a good environmental status for all European seas by 2020. Marine litter is one of the biggest environmental problems we are facing. The Federal Environment Agency will continue to be actively involved in marine protection in the future."

The Federal Environment Ministry and the Federal Environment Agency played an important role in both the political and technical development of the OSPAR plans.

Background:  

OSPAR stands for the Oslo-Paris Commission. The Commission is responsible for the implementation of the Oslo and Paris Conventions for the protection of the North-East Atlantic.

HELCOM stands for the Helsinki Commission. The Commission implements the Helsinki Convention and thus guarantees the protection of the marine environment in the Baltic Sea.

It is estimated that the volume of waste in our seas currently stands at over 100 million tonnes, 75% of which consists of plastics. Currently up to 6.4 million tonnes of waste are added to this each year. Around 70% of the waste sinks to the sea floor and the rest either washes up on beaches, floats to the surface or is dragged down to deeper ocean layers. On average, there are 13,000 plastic waste particles in every square kilometre of the sea's surface. In the North Sea alone there are 600,000 cubic meters of waste.