Summary

• There have been reductions in most direct and river inputs to UK coastal waters since 1985, except for zinc, nitrate, nitrogen and suspended particulates.
  
  
• The amount of solid industrial waste and dredged material (wet weight) dumped at sea around the UK has fallen by over 30 per cent since 1991 but the amount of sewage sludge dumped remained relatively constant. The dumping of liquid industrial waste at sea ceased at the end of 1992.

• The main stocks of roundfish, such as cod and haddock, and flatfish around the UK are fully exploited and in some cases heavily over-exploited. Cod stocks in the North Sea have fallen to about a third of levels seen in the early 1970s.
  
  
• In May 2002 the UK Government published a strategy for the conservation and sustainable development of our marine environment.
  Check out "Marine Stewardship Report:
  Safeguarding our Seas " at
  http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/
  marine/stewardship/default.htm