Monitoring of environmental quality in the Sørfjord 2012. Metals in the water masses, Oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus in the water masses, Contaminants in organisms

Summary

The monitoring of the Sørfjord in 2012 represents the last year of the governmentally initiated monitoring of the Sørfjord, administered by the Klif, now the Norwegian Environment Agency. In the future, the Norwegian Environment Agency will instruct the local industry to organise environmental monitoring according to the Water Framework Directive. The 2012 monitoring is somewhat reduced, compared to earlier years. The program is mainly a continuation of the earlier monitoring, with the objective of describing the present environmental status and assessing this in relation to the remedial actions done in the area. Furthermore, the monitoring has the aim of detecting possible irregular discharges and needs for further remedial actions. The monitoring also produces a foundation for the Norwegian Food Safety Authority in their work of evaluating the edibility of fish and shellfish. The present report gives a description of water quality and content of contaminants in blue mussel and fish. The monitoring of the Sørfjord has shown considerable improvement in the pollution situation on several areas over the years, but that the fjord still is influenced by several forms of pollution.