Many maritime countries in Europe have implemented marine environmental monitoring programmes which include the measurement of chemical contaminants and related biological effects. How best to integrate data obtained in these two types of monitoring into meaningful assessments has been the subject of recent efforts by the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Expert Groups. Work within these groups has concentrated on defining a core set of chemical and biological endpoints that can be used across maritime areas, defining confounding factors, supporting parameters and protocols for measurement. The framework comprised markers for concentrations of, exposure to and effects from, contaminants. Most importantly, assessment criteria for biological effect measurements have been set and the framework suggests how these measurements can be used in an integrated manner alongside contaminant measurements in biota, sediments and potentially water. Output from this process resulted in OSPAR Commission (www.ospar.org) guidelines that were adopted in 2012 on a trial basis for a period of 3 years. The developed assessment framework can furthermore provide a suitable approach for the assessment of Good Environmental Status (GES) for Descriptor 8 of the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

Generation of wastewater is one of the main environmental sustainability issues across food sector industries. The constituents of food process effluents are often complex and require high energy and processing for regulatory compliance. Wastewater streams are the subject of microbiological and chemical criteria, and can have a significant eco-toxicological impact on the aquatic life. Thus, innovative treatment approaches are required to mitigate environmental impact in an energy efficient manner. Here, dielectric barrier discharge atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) was evaluated for control of key microbial indicators encountered in food industry effluent. This study also investigated the eco-toxicological impact of cold plasma treatment of the effluents using a range of aquatic bioassays. Continuous ACP treatment was applied to synthetic dairy and meat effluents. Microbial inactivation showed treatment time dependence with significant reduction in microbial populations within 120 s, and to undetectable levels after 300 s. Post treatment retention time emerged as critical control parameter which promoted ACP bacterial inactivation efficiency. Moreover, ACP treatment for 20 min achieved significant reduction (≥2 Log) in Bacillus megaterium endospores in wastewater effluent. Acute aquatic toxicity was assessed using two fish cell lines (PLHC-1 and RTG-2) and a crustacean model (Daphnia magna). Untreated effluents were toxic to the aquatic models, however, plasma treatment limited the toxic effects. Differing sensitivities were observed to ACP treated effluents across the different test bio-assays in the following order: PLHC-1 > RTG-2 ≥ D. magna; with greater sensitivity retained to plasma treated meat effluent than dairy effluent. The toxic effects were dependent on concentration and treatment time of the ACP treated effluent; with 30% cytotoxicity in D. magna and fish cells observed after 24 h of exposure to ACP treated effluent for concentrations up to 5%. The findings suggest the need to employ wider variety of aquatic organisms for better understanding and complete toxicity evaluation of long-term effects. The study demonstrates the potential to tailor ACP system parameters to control pertinent microbial targets (mono/poly-microbial, vegetative or spore form) found in complex and nutritious wastewater effluents whilst maintaining a safe eco-toxicity profile for aquatic species.

Pancreas disease (PD) caused by the salmonid alphavirus (SAV) has been the most significant cause of mortalities in Irish farmed salmon Salmo salar L. over the past decade. SAV is a single-strand positive-sense RNA virus, originally thought to be unique to salmonids, but has recently been detected using real-time RT-PCR in a number of wild non-salmonid fish. In the present report, 610 wild flatfish (common dab Limanda limanda, plaice Pleuronectes platessa and megrim Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis) were caught from the Irish and Celtic Seas and screened for SAV using real-time RT-PCR and sequencing. In general, a very low prevalence was recorded in common dab and plaice, except for 1 haul in Dublin Bay where 25% of common dab were SAVpositive. SAV sequence analysis supported the fact that real-time RT-PCR detections were specific and further characterised the detected viruses within SAV Subtype I, the predominant subtype found in farmed salmon in Ireland. KEY WORDS: SAV · Pancreas disease · Wild fish · Horizontal transmission · Atlantic salmon · Aquaculture Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherDis Aquat Org 109: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] 2014 MATERIALS AND METHODSFish were sampled onboard research vessels demersal trawling in the Irish and Celtic Seas, using a 2 to 3 metre beam trawl. Fish were caught from 4 trawls in the Irish Sea: 3 in Dublin Bay (October 2010 twice and February 2011) and 1 in Wexford Harbour (October 2010). A much broader annual groundfish survey was completed on the RV 'Celtic Voyager' in the Celtic Sea in December 2012, whereby the fish were caught from multiple hauls covering the south east to the north west of Ireland. In all cases, sampling was completed onboard within 1 h of capture. Either heart or gill tissue was taken and preserved by storage in RNAlater ® for testing in the laboratory. Pancreas and liver tissue were collected from Irish Sea flatfish into neutralbuffered formalin, and stained using haematoxylin and eosin according to standard methods for histopathological examination.Total RNA was extracted from 610 flatfish from either ~15 mg heart or gill tissue samples using a Qiagen TissueLyser and a standard protocol from the Qiagen RNeasy ® mini kit. Gill tissue was used in this study because SAV persists for a long time in this tissue (Graham et al. 2010). RNA was eluted in a 50 µl volume and a subsample treated with Qiagen RNase-Free DNase. Treated RNA was subsequently purified using a Qiagen RNeasy minElute kit and stored at -80°C. Real-time RT-PCR primers targeting the nsP1 gene (Hodneland & Endresen 2006) were used to test for the presence of SAV RNA using a 1-step real-time reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with Platinum ® qRT-PCR Thermoscript™ (Invitrogen) and an ABI 7500 thermal cycler (Applied Biosystems). A total real time RT-PCR reaction volume of 20 µl, containing 2 µl of sample RNA, 300 nM of each primer and 200 nM of probe was subjected to the following thermal profile: 50°C for 20 min and 95°C fo...

This paper describes the ecotoxicological evaluation of five organic contaminants frequently detected in marine sediments (tributyltin, triphenyltin, benzo[a]