Introductory Chapter: Marine Monitoring Pollution

Abstract

Monitoring the quality of the marine and coastal environment combines activities of various kinds and is defined as a type of activity that can be exercised on a regulatory basis (this is a control) or to evaluate levels or trends for a scientific study. This definition made it possible to clarify later, after a good number of debates, the definition of the monitoring objectives. It was at the origin of the extensive definition produced by the Oslo and Paris Conventions (the OSPAR Convention), which constitutes the most current reference: “continuous monitoring is the repeated measure of the quality of the marine environment and of each of its compartments, namely, water, sediment and living environment; natural or anthropogenic activities or inputs that may affect the quality of the marine environment; and the effects of its activities and contributions” [1]. Monitoring of the coastal and marine environment in particular requires the study of water (physical chemistry, temperature, salinity, oxygen, bacteriology, etc.), the sediment (grain size, micro, etc.), and living (benthos, plants, magnoliophytes, algae, fish, coral, biomonitoring, bioindicators). The methods and means of analysis and monitoring features of the marine and coastal environment (physical and chemical parameters, pollutants, nutrients, etc.) are numerous. Measurements are essential for understanding and interpreting data to accomplish the goals of surveillance [2]. The study of environmental pollution implies as a precise knowledge as possible of the distribution of pollutants in ecosystems and their effects on living organisms. Sometimes, it is customary to distinguish between a chemical monitoring whose purpose is to determine the level of contamination by a particular pollutant biotope and biomass and other biological monitoring which aims to assess the impact at a given moment or time of environmental pollution on exposed populations and communities. Since the critical level of ecotoxicological concentration-response relationship to a given pollutant is known, it will subsequently be possible to establish environmental protection standards for the pollutant under consideration.