Monitoring the quality of Irish marine waters: Legacy pollutants to emerging threats

The marine environment is subject to a myriad of inputs from a variety of natural or anthropogenic sources including via rivers, direct discharges and/or atmospheric deposition. These inputs can directly or indirectly impact... [ view full abstract ]

The marine environment is subject to a myriad of inputs from a variety of natural or anthropogenic sources including via rivers, direct discharges and/or atmospheric deposition. These inputs can directly or indirectly impact molluscan shellfish produced either naturally or in aquaculture production systems located in coastal receiving waters.

Exposure to such complex mixtures of potentially harmful chemical compounds may bring about undesired consumer related effects or indeed may result in biological effects such as metabolic disorders or adverse effects on population growth in exposed aquatic organisms. This paper summarises a range of legislative and supporting research monitoring undertaken to support marine water quality assessment of inshore and offshore Irish waters.