Europe's seas are in a "serious state of decline" as a result of
coastal development, overfishing and pollution from agriculture,
warn scientists. Commercial fishing is taking its toll on marine
ecosystems The continent's regional seas will deteriorate even
further unless action is taken to curb the threats, they add.
Economic growth and the expansion of the EU, the researchers
suggested, had contributed to the state of the waters. The
findings were presented in an EU-funded report, involving more
than 100 scientists from 15 nations. The three-year project,
European Lifestyles and Marine Ecosystems (ELME), examined the
relationship between human activities and the impact on the
region's marine ecosystems. It focused on the continent's four
regional seas: the North-East Atlantic Ocean, and the Black,
Baltic and Mediterranean seas. "The objective was to look at the
relationship between human lifestyles in a rapidly changing
Europe and the marine environment," the project co-ordinator,
Laurence Mee, told BBC New