FISHERIES scientists working for the government have delayed for more than two years the publication of findings which show that British pollution is causing widespread damage to the marine life of the North Sea. The work was completed in 1993, but government scientists approved publication only in the past few weeks 鈥� too late for ministers to consider the findings at last week鈥檚 North Sea Conference in Denmark.
The research was coordinated by John Widdows of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, part of the Natural Environment Research Council. It found that pollution, especially from vehicle exhausts in urban areas, is stunting the growth of mussels all along Britain鈥檚 North Sea coast, from Scotland to the Thames Estuary, with a clear gradient of increased damage further south. 鈥淭he general north-south decline is undoubtedly due to greater urbanisation in the south,鈥� says Widdows.
The findings contradict the conclusion of the 1993 North Sea Quality Status Report, carried out for the nine North Sea countries, and the claims made last week by Britain鈥檚 environment secretary John Gummer, that British pollution only damages marine life near a few industrial estuaries such as the Tyne and Tees. In Denmark, Gummer refused to back calls from other ministers for a total ban on toxic chemicals entering the North Sea within 25 years.
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The study reveals that the poor growth of mussels is largely the result of pollution by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a class of organic chemicals emitted by burning oil, especially from vehicle engines. This has important implications for environmental policy in the North Sea countries.
According to Widdows, it 鈥渟hifts attention away from heavy metals, the traditional culprits, and towards organic pollutants from oil. We don鈥檛 now think heavy metals do much damage. They have always been in the environment, whereas the large-scale release of oil and other organics is new.鈥� The European Environment Agency says that some 260 000 tonnes of oil enter the North Sea each year, 90 per cent from land.
Widdows collected more than 5000 mussels from 26 sites in 1990. Then he calculated the mussels鈥� 鈥渟cope for growth鈥� by measuring the amount of energy they have left after carrying out their normal bodily functions 鈥� including energy expended coping with toxic pollutants.
Finally, chemical analysis of the mussels combined with known toxicological data revealed the major stresses on the animals. According to Widdows, the method 鈥渉as been established for many years鈥� and is 鈥渙ne of the most sensitive measures of pollution-induced stress鈥�.
But from the first the study was dogged by delays at the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods鈥� fisheries laboratory at Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex, which carried out the chemical analysis of the mussels. 鈥淭here was a backlog of work there, and it took two years to get the results,鈥� says Widdows. Then British environment officials, advised by the laboratory, failed to submit the research for the North Sea Quality Status Report.
Finally, the scientists from the MAFF laboratory spent a further two years in what their director John Campbell this week called 鈥渄iscussing the text and getting clearance for publication鈥�.
Government officials denied this week that they had deliberately suppressed the findings of the study. According to the Department of the Environment, it was 鈥渞ejected by the North Sea Secretariat because the scope-for-growth technique was not a recognised methodology鈥�. But Campbell denies this. 鈥淚t could certainly have been included,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut I understand that the report was not received in time, and so was not submitted to the secretariat.鈥�
Widdows says this is the first time anyone has suggested he missed the deadline. 鈥淚 think basically they were reluctant to put it forward and chose to ignore it,鈥� he says.
Among a series of unexpected pollution 鈥渉ot spots鈥� uncovered during the survey was massive contamination of mussels with PCBs near the Ythan estuary in northeast Scotland. 鈥淲e think this was probably caused by the explosion at the Piper Alpha oil platform in 1988,鈥� says Widdows. 鈥淏ut the MAFF co-authors asked us to take this out of the report because it was speculative.鈥�
This oversight may have helped Gummer with another presentational problem at last week鈥檚 meeting: defending Britain鈥檚 refusal to ban the dumping of old oil platforms at sea. Most North Sea ministers oppose Gummer鈥檚 plans to dump the Brent Spar platform in the North Atlantic this summer.
In a third opt-out from the conference鈥檚 final statement, Britain joined France in opposing tighter controls to prevent nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus entering the sea. Most come from discharges of sewage and farm fertilisers leaking from fields into rivers, and can cause carpets of toxic algae to grow in over fertilised waters (see Diagram).
