ICES WGMS Report 2017. SCICOM Steering Group on Ecosystem Pressures and Impacts. ICES CM 2017/SSGEPI:08. REF. SCICOM, ACOM. Report of the Working Group on Marine Sediments in Relation to Pollution (WGMS). 6-10 March 2017, Ancona, Italy.
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The Working Group on Marine Sediments in Relation to Pollution (WGMS) met on 6-10 March 2017, in Ancona, Italy. The meeting was chaired by Celine Tixier (France) and Craig Robinson (UK) and attended by 8 other members from 6 countries; additional con-tributions were received from five staff of the host institute (ISMAR CNR) and from two local experts who were invited to contribute to WGMS ToRs.
WGMS had six regular Terms of Reference due for completion in 2017. These require the Group to (1) respond to requests for advice; (2) work to promote the use of passive sam-pling in sediment contaminant monitoring; (3) report on the applicability of modelling to explain the distribution of sediment-associated contaminants in relation to potential sources; (4) to advise on deep sea sediment monitoring protocols; (5) investigate/review the potential for release of contaminants from marine renewable energy activities; (6) review emerging issues (e.g. microplastics, deep sea mining) as potential risks for envi-ronmental contamination by hazardous substances. Additionally, WGMS and Marine Chemistry Working Group (MCWG) jointly received a significant advisory ToR: (7) spe-cial request from OSPAR for advice on the selection /deselection of hazardous substanc-es.
Terms of Reference 1 (requests), 3 (modelling), 4 (deep sea sampling protocols) and 6 (emerging issues) were completed during the meeting and are reported on here and in the previous interim reports. Work was jointly undertaken in virtual session with Marina Chemistry Working Group (MCWG) on ToR 5, but this subject is not finalised as the German research project behind it is just commencing. Sufficient work was undertaken to propose resolutions for three ICES publications arising from ToR 2 (passive sampling): one Cooperative Research Report reviewing passive sampling techniques and two TIMES papers, one on passive sampling of hydrophobic contaminants and one on passive sam-pling of metals. These documents remain on a proposed new ToR, for submission to ICES following a 2019 meeting.
Significant effort was made during the meeting, and subsequently, to address special ToR 7 (OSPAR request) along with experts from MCWG. An interim report on this ToR was submitted to ICES in March (for reporting to OSPAR in March) and a final report in October 2017.
As this was the final meeting of the three-year ToR, a self-evaluation was completed and a resolution proposed for a new three-year ToR, to be taken forward under new co-Chairs.