Monitoring and Surveillance Groups

 

Most of these groups have both a monitoring and surveillance remit.

 

The Marine Monitoring Coordination Group (MMCG) is a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) led group originally set up to support the work highlighted through the government's first report on marine stewardship, Safeguarding Our Seas.

 

The Marine Environment Monitoring Group (MEMG), formally known as the Marine Pollution Monitoring Management Group (MPMMG),  is chaired by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) on behalf of Defra and represents the Environmental Quality sector.

 

The Inter-Agency Marine Monitoring Group (MMG) is an established inter-agency group of specialist staff from the conservation agencies (CCW, EHS, SNH, Natural England (formally English Nature)) and JNCC and provides a useful link between the agencies to discuss marine monitoring issues.

 

The National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP) was initiated in the late 1980's after MEMG reviewed the monitoring carried out in UK estuaries and coastal waters and concluded that there should be consistent national standards for marine environmental quality in all UK waters and a core programme of monitoring contaminants to use these standards should be implemented.

 

The National Marine Biological Analytical Quality Control Scheme (NMBAQC) was established to monitor and develop marine biological data quality standards for benthic faunal studies. Initially developed to support the NMMP, it is a programme of macro-invertebrate sample, sediment sample and invertebrate specimen exchanges to approximately 30 biology laboratories around the UK.

 

The UK GOOS Action Group (GOOSAG)  is operated under the Inter-Agency Committee on Marine Science and Technology (IACMST). The responsibilities of the group lie with coordinating the UK input to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and its main focus is on the physical nature of the marine environment and indicators (including biological) of short and long term variations in weather and climate.