Contaminants of emerging concern in the North Sea:

Exploring their occurrence via unmanned sampling from ships of opportunity


Miroslav Brumovský ^1, Jitka Bečanová ^1, Jiří Kohoutek ^1, Henrike Thomas ^2, Wilhelm Petersen ^2,
Kai Sørensen ^3, Ondřej Sáňka ^1, Luca Nizzetto ^1,3

^1 RECETOX, Masaryk University, Kamenice 753/5, 62500 Brno, Czech Republic

^2 Institute of Coastal Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Max-Planck-Straße 1 21502
Geesthacht, Germany

^3 Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustadalléen 21, 0349 Oslo, Norway

E-mail: brumovsky@recetox.muni.cz


Marine coastal waters are receptors of thousands of chemical pollutants. Several anthropogenic
chemicals were detected in surface water even in remote oceanic regions [1]. A number of
international conventions aim at regulating some classes of prioritized substances of particular
concern. Priority lists, however, are generally limited to a few dozens of chemicals with
well-studied toxic properties [2]. Unregulated chemicals frequently detected in environmental
samples include several classes of chemicals encompassing both high- and low- production volume
substances, e.g., antifouling pesticides, plasticizers, anticorrosive agents, surfactants, flame
retardants, pharma-ceuticals, personal care products, herbicides and food additives [3]. These are
further referred to as Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs). Risks posed by CECs to the
environment and human health are largely unknown due to the lack of information about their
occurrence and sub-lethal toxicity effects.

Running exploratory studies to target CECs in marine waters is necessary for an effective
development and implementation of marine protection actions. A possible strategy for cost-effective
monitoring considers the use of unmanned sampling devices on ships and marine platforms of
opportunity. This study demonstrates the possible effective use of existing robotic sampling
devices installed on the European FerryBox fleet [4] to detect a broad range of chemical
contaminants at ng/L and sub-ng/L levels. The outcomes of this work have been published in an
impacted journal [5].


References

[1] Lohmann, R. et al., 2007. Global fate of POPs: current and future research directions. Environ.
Pollut. 150, 150–65. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2007.06.051

[2] European Comission, 2013. Directive 2013/39/EU. Off. J. Eur. Union 226, 1–17.

[3] Nödler, K. et al., 2014. Polar organic micropollutants in the coastal environment of different
marine systems. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 85, 50–59. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.06.024

[4] Petersen, W., 2014. FerryBox systems: State-of-the-art in Europe and future development. J.
Mar. Syst. 140, 4–12. doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2014.07.003

[5] Brumovský, M. et al., 2016. Exploring the occurrence and distribution of contaminants of
emerging concern through unmanned sampling from ships of opportunity in the North Sea, J. Mar.
Syst., in press, doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2016.03.004.