Pollution of the Marine Environment: Recent Developments in the North Sea Region

The declaration adopted to the OSPAR Convention in 1998 reveals the concern for various old and new problems of the marine environment in the North Sea Region.Although pollution remains the main concern, conservation resources through the establishement of protected areas and regulation of fishing may gain increasing importance. The capacity of self-regeneration of the ocean is not enough to absorb all the negative impacts of human activities. The preliminary phase of ocean protection is the protection and conservation of terrestrial ecosystems, with the generalisation of the existing legal instruments. Besides the technical and scientific knowledge there is a need for a new political and ethical approach to the ocean management.