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North Sea

Umwelt-Indikator

Indicator: Eutrophication of the North Sea/Baltic Sea by nitrogen

A graph shows the change in concentration of total nitrogen in all the main rivers which enter the North Sea and Baltic Sea in Germany. A distinction is made between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The concentration value is given as the moving average of the flows of the past 5 years in milligrams per litre.

To achieve the objectives for the protection of the marine environment, Germany has committed to comply with maximum concentrations of nitrogen at estuaries.On average for all rivers, these target concentrations are already met for the North Sea, but still exceeded for the Baltic Sea.Some of the North Sea and Baltic Sea tributaries still have very high concentrations.In order to fulfil the objecti... read more

Indicator: Plastic waste in the North Sea

A graph shows the 5-year averages for 2003 to 2017 of the proportion of fulmars with stomachs containing over 0.1 grammes of plastic. The indicator remains at around 60 percent.

Since studies began, the stomachs of 93 % to 97 % beached fulmars have been found to contain plastics.Around 60 % of beached fulmars on the North Sea coasts have more than 0.1 grammes of plastic in their stomachs.The target set by the OSPAR convention is to reduce this to a maximum of 10 %. However, it may take a long time to reach this target.Large quantities of plastic waste still end up in the... read more

News on Air, Water and Transport

Scrubber discharge bans would protect oceans

5 laboratory bottles with differently coloured liquid from transparent to brown-black.

The German Environment Agency has commissioned a project to study the effects of discharge water from exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) of ships on the marine environment. Scrubber discharge contains pollutants such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are classified as extremely hazardous. Discharge bans - at least regional - are recommended. read more

The Umweltbundesamt

For our environment

The UBA’s motto, For our environment (“Für Mensch und Umwelt”), sums up our mission pretty well, we feel. In this video we give an insight into our work.

The UBA

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