Documenting methods
Two ICES Techniques in Marine Environmental
Sciences (TIMES)
issues have been published since August: numbers 60, ‘Supporting variables for biological
effects measurements in fish and blue mussel’ and 61, ‘Guidelines for determining polymer-water
and polymer-polymer partition coefficients of organic compounds’.
TIMES 60 covers the measurements of
biological effects in fish and blue mussels that are fundamental in marine
science monitoring. It presents a number of supporting variables such as body
weight, shell weight, and condition whose measurement is necessary in order to
obtain reliable biological effects data. The report also outlines several
confounding factors.
TIMES 61 lays down guidelines for the
practice of passive sampling to monitor levels of hydrophobic persistent
organic pollutants (POPs) in the marine environment. The technique uses simple
polymers, which accumulate POPs when exposed to water and are then used to
measure concentrations. Presenting passive sampling as an alternative to
biota-based water quality monitoring, TIMES 61 provides guidance for
measurement of polymer-water partition coefficients, with considerations for
quality assurance and control.
Wider science
Fish and
shellfish disease received coverage in the form of a Cooperative Research Report (CRR) and an Identification (ID) Leaflet. CRR
number 337 documents both the status of major diseases and new diseases
affecting farmed fish and molluscs in the ICES Area from 2002 to 2015, based on
input from the Working Group on Pathology and
Diseases of Marine Organisms (WGPDMO). Identification
Leaflet number 68, focuses on x-cell disease in common dab.
Also
available are a number of open-access Editor’s Choice articles from ICES Journal of Marine Science. The most recent three of these have
covered an approach to a potential Arctic
marine protected area (MPA), fisheries connectivity in large
marine ecosystems,
and monitoring fish choruses for
informing of dolphin foraging habitats.
