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Education and research (survey and educational activities) are activities affecting the marine environment. The marine environment continues to be an attractive and important subject for research, in particular because of its identified importance and contribution to European economies and livelihoods. Moreover, increased acknowledgement and understanding of climate change, combined with increased concern over the state of the marine environment, suggest that more research and observation is needed.

It is estimated that funding for marine research will double in the coming decade; however, this sector is to a large extent dependent on public policy and funding for research. The EU dedicated over EUR 238 million for maritime research under the Horizon 2020 programme for the funding period 2018-2020and prior to this between 2014 and 2017 around EUR 1,000 million on Horizon 2020, LIFE and Interreg programmes combined. In addition, the value of the marine environment for educational purposes has increased, due to the links between ocean and human wellbeing.

Research and survey activities are wide-ranging but include seabed habitat assessments, water column sampling, marine mammal observation and bathymetric surveys. Specialist equipment used for these surveys is constantly evolving as new technologies and techniques are developed. Such equipment includes mechanical grab samplers (such Day Grab, dual Van-Veen) used for collecting sediment form the seabed, drop-down camera systems for taking seabed imagery and acoustic devices (such as multibeam echosounder and side-scan sonar) for mapping the seabed.  

Pressures on the marine environment

While this activity is for the purpose of informing protection of the marine environment by its nature some pressures are expected to be imposed at a local level, depending on the research activity, such as:

  • Physical loss and disturbance of the seabed caused by this activity is minimal when compared to other activies but can be caused by the direct extraction of seabed to aid scientists in understanding the complex communities living there as well as for example to understand the impacts of contamination in sediments.
  • Underwater noise and other forms of energy input can be caused by the presence of survey vessels as well as energy generated directly by geophysical survey equipment.

References

  1. EC, 2018, Horizon 2020 work programme 2018-2020: food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy, European Commission, Brussels (
    http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2018-2020/
    main/h2020-wp1820-food_en.pdf).
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  2. EEA 2019, Marine Messages II. Navigating the course towards clean, healthy and productive seas through implementation of an ecosystem-based approach. European Environment Agency, EEA Report, 17/2019: 82 pp.
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  3. Borja, A., M. Elliott, 2018. There is no Planet B: A healthy Earth requires greater parity between space and marine research. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 130: 28-30.
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  4. Korpinen, S., Klančnik, K., Peterlin, M., Nurmi, M., Laamanen, L., Zupančič, G., Popit, A., Murray, C., Harvey, T., Andersen, J.H.,Zenetos, A., Stein, U., Tunesi, L., Abhold, K., Piet, G., Kallenbach, E., Agnesi, S., Bolman, B., Vaughan, D., Reker, J. & Royo Gelabert,E., 2019, Multiple pressures and their combined effects in Europe’s seas. ETC/ICM Technical Report 4/2019: European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters, 164 pp. (
    https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-icm/products/etc-icm-report-4-2019-multiple-pressures-and-their-combined-effects-in-europes-seas
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