New Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheets released

30 October 2012 (HELCOM Information Services) – The latest Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheets for 2012 have now been published and can be accessed via the HELCOM website.

The Fact Sheets have been approved by the HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Group (MONAS), who decided last month to rename the HELCOM Indicator Fact Sheets to Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheets (BSEFSs). This will avoid confusion with the core indicators currently being developed to follow up on the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Only fact sheets updated after 2009 have been renamed as Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheets - older ones retain the old name.

The highlight of the year is that there are five new Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheets related to non-indigenous species. There are two more general fact sheets about the amounts of non-indigenous species and their impacts in different areas of the Baltic Sea. In addition, there are three species specific reports on Round Goby (fish species), Zebra mussel and Marenzelleria (a polychaete worm).

Round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) is a wide spread invasive species in the Baltic Sea potentially impacting the structure and function of the coastal ecosystems. Photo: Riikka Puntila

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Note to Editors:

The aim of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheets (former “Indicator Fact Sheets) is to provide information on the recent state of and trends in the Baltic marine environment. The Fact Sheets are compiled by scientists in various research institutes around the Baltic Sea and inform about:  

• hydrographic variations (temperature, salinity, inflows and runoff)  which largely regulate the marine life
• inputs and concentrations of nutrients and hazardous substances
• plankton blooms and species composition
• radioactivity
• illegal oil discharges.

A Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheet presents information using data obtained by HELCOM monitoring programmes, such as Pollution Load Compilations (PLC-Air and PLC-Water); Cooperative Monitoring in the Baltic Marine Environment – COMBINE; and Monitoring of Radioactive Sustances (MORS).

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The Monitoring and Assessment Group (HELCOM MONAS) looks after one of HELCOM’s key tasks by assessing trends in threats to the marine environment, their impacts, the resulting state of the marine environment, and the effectiveness of adopted measures. This work forms the basis for the work of HELCOM’s other main groups, and helps to define the need for additional measures. HELCOM MONAS aims to ensure that HELCOM’s monitoring programmes are efficiently used through horizontal co-ordination between the Commission’s five permanent working groups.

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The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), is an intergovernmental organization of the nine Baltic Sea coastal countries and the European Union working to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution and to ensure safety of navigation in the region.

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," more usually known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:

Minna Pyhälä

Assisting Professional Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 46 850 9205

Fax: +358 207 412 639

E-mail: minna.pyhala@helcom.fi

Skype: helcom16

Johanna Laurila

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 40 523 8988

Fax: +358 207 412 639

E-mail: johanna.laurila@helcom.fi

Skype: helcom70