EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 Eutrophication Status of Marine Offshore Areas Assessment of Ireland’s offshore waters indicates the absence of nutrient enrichment. The OSPAR Convention, the Oslo Paris Convention for the Protection of the Environment of the North East Atlantic has worked since 1972 to identify threats to the marine environment and has organised, across its maritime area, programmes and measures to ensure effective national action to combat them. The OSPAR Comprehensive Procedure uses a set of indicators to evaluate the eutrophic status of marine waters. Ireland classified all its marine offshore waters as non-problem areas for the period between 2006 and 2014 (EPA and MI, 2016, Figure 8.2). Trend analysis indicates that there has been little change in nutrient levels between 1997 and 2014 and these levels do not exceed those expected in a healthy marine environment. The Comprehensive Procedure will be updated for Ireland in 2023. Ireland’s latest report on environmental status under the current cycle of the MSFD considered the OSPAR Comprehensive Procedure (2009-2014) (OSPAR, 2017). This indicates that all offshore areas have reached Good Environmental Status for eutrophication (DHPLG, 2020). In European coastal and marine waters, for example the Baltic Sea, eutrophication can result in dead zones where oxygen levels are considered to be too low to sustain life. The expansion of these dead zones is a globally important issue. Dead zones have not been detected in Irish waters to date; however, continual monitoring should be carried out to enable any changes in oxygen levels to be detected should they arise. 196