Topics | Umweltbundesamt

Handling of fertilisers in German ports can cause nutrients to enter coastal waters. This can lead to oxygen depletion in the waters and have a severe adverse effect on living organisms. During transshipment, between 0.025 and 0.00000083 per cent of fertiliser can end up in the water. Protective covers between the ship and the quay wall and cleaning of the transshipment areas can counteract this. read more

The German Environment Agency has commissioned a project to study the effects of discharge water from exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) of ships on the marine environment. Scrubber discharge contains pollutants such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are classified as extremely hazardous. Discharge bans - at least regional - are recommended. read more

Since studies began, the stomachs of 88 % to 97 % beached fulmars have been found to contain plastics.Around 49 % of beached fulmars on the North Sea coasts have more than 0.1 grammes of plastic in their stomachs.The target set by the OSPAR convention is to reduce this to a maximum of 10 %. However, it may take a long time to reach this target.Large quantities of plastic waste still end up in the... read more

To achieve the objectives for the protection of the marine environment, Germany has committed to comply with maximum concentrations of nitrogen at estuaries.On average for all rivers, these target concentrations are already met for the North Sea, but still exceeded for the Baltic Sea.Some of the North Sea and Baltic Sea tributaries still have very high concentrations.In order to fulfil the objecti... read more