Die Überwachungsprogramme der internationalen Meeresschutzkonventionen für Nord- und Ostsee

The international conventions for the protection of the marine environment of the North-east Atlantic Ocean including the North Sea (OSPAR) and the Baltic Sea (HELCOM) as well as the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) have modified their structures in the recent years towards a strategy directed approach. Committees and working groups have partly changed only their names but in many cases also the scope of their subjects. In the last two years activities have been initiated to coordinate the tasks of the marine conventions and the European Union and to merge them as much as meaningful and practicable, under a common EU Marine Strategy. This article will reflect how the organisational structures have changed since the last restructuring in the first half of the nineties, and how the contaminant and bioeffect monitoring activities of the Federal Research Centre for Fisheries are implemented in these international conventions.