45 
Sampling was performed on a co-operative basis by the Institute of Fishery Ecology. 
The Institute’s available equipment, which included fishery research vessels, and its 
highly skilled staff with ample experience in fishing and sample preparation ensured: 
• the correct catch, identification, and choice of suitable indicator species, 
• a correct protocol of catch log data (location, date, time etc.) and biometric data 
(sex, length, weight, age), 
• immediate dissection of liver and fillet sub-samples under controlled conditions 
avoiding contamination (separated labs on board, clean bench), quick deep-freezing 
in special frost rooms, and maintaining frozen state during storage and transport. 
The cruises were designed for monitoring programmes of the international conventions 
for the protection of the marine environment such as: 
• Coordinated Environmental Monitoring Programme [CEMP] of OSPAR for the 
North-East Atlantic Ocean 
• Cooperative Monitoring in the Baltic Marine Environment [COMBINE] of 
HELCOM. 
Sampling was performed according to the relevant guidelines. Therefore, the results 
obtained in this project can be fully integrated into existing monitoring programmes and 
used in assessments. This is particularly important with respect to the occurrence and 
spatial distribution of substances included in the list of hazardous substances for priority 
action under the OSPAR and HELCOM hazardous substances strategies. Moreover, 
concentrations of new substances can be compared to those of substances that have been 
monitored for many years, such as organochlorine compounds, trace metals, as well as 
to bio-effect data like the prevalence of fish diseases. 
The cruises were carried out by the fishery research vessel FFS Walther Herwig III. The 
investigation areas for this project were selected from the core areas (N01, N04, N06, 
N11, P01, P02, BMP, B01, B11) of the Institute’s monitoring grid, which has been 
developed since the early eighties of the last century in order to investigate possible 
influences of hazardous substances on fish diseases in the areas of past or present 
pollutant sources and in adjacent areas such as: