Overview of EcoQOs

OSPAR has decided the following EcoQOs should be applied in the North Sea:

• Safe fish stocks
• Healthy seal populations
• Minimize bycatch of harbour porpoise
• Limiting the input of oil into the sea - low number of guillemots killed by oil
• Decreasing the impact of TBT containing antifouling paints - imposex in dog whelks and other sea snails
• Limiting the input of mercury into the marine environment - level of mercury in seabird eggs
• Limiting the input of organochlorines into the marine environment - level of organochlorines in seabird eggs
• Diminishing litter in the marine environment: - plastic particles in fulmar stomachs
• Restore large fish
• Eutrophication

A marine environment where eutrophication does not occur Eutrophication Status of the North Sea, including:
- Winter nutrient (phosphorus, nitrogen) concentrations
- Phytoplankton chlorophyll a
- Phytoplankton indicator species for eutrophication
- Oxygen
- Kills in zoobenthos in relation to eutrophication