46 
• N01 (German Bight): Elbe river, former titanium dioxide dumping site, high 
shipping traffic 
• N04 northern Dogger Bank, high prevalence of fish diseases possibly due to 
sedimentation of substances originating from industrial areas, rivers, and dumping 
sites at the English east coast 
• N06 industrial region Edinburgh (Firth of Forth) 
• Offshore oil and gas production at P01 (Danfield) and P02 (Ekofisk). 
Due to variable composition of the catch, it was not always possible to complete the 
planned sampling programme. Therefore, the spatial coverage of individual years is not 
comparable. However, dab was caught in the areas N01, N04, N06 and P01 in all three 
years and was subsequently analysed for brominated flame retardants (PBDEs) at the 
laboratory of the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA). 
An overview of the samples collected for this project is given in Tables 3-5, and the 
species abbreviations (Rubin-Code) are explained in Table 6. The sampling sites are 
shown in Figure 5, and detailed logging data of the catches are provided in Table 7. 
Samples were prepared on board the ship. The laboratories were specially designed to 
avoid contamination by organic substances (“ceramic” floor coating, walls, benches and 
cupboards made of sea-water resistant stainless steel, clean bench). Blank controls of 
analytes at the land-based laboratories had not indicated any contamination of target 
substances due to sampling and preparation.