Commission says key marine research safeguarded under FP6
The European Commission has said that proposed cuts in marine research funding allocation in the next Framework Programme (FP6) do not mean that vital marine research will be neglected. Reacting to concern at the reduction in scale of marine funding under FP6, a Commission spokesperson said that some marine research projects, including work on ships and oil exploration, are being cut to make way for more pressing priorities. The spokesperson emphasised, however, that the rearrangement of priorities under FP6 was a 'streamlining exercise' and that work on marine ecology, biodiversity and food safety issues would be subsumed into environmental and food research programmes. The spokesperson said that the Scientific and technological need budget - FP6 funding set aside specifically for unforeseen research needs - could be used if necessary to support any marine science 'breakthroughs' or for 'gaps in the [FP6] programme which were not foreseen.' Current research under the Sustainable marine ecosystems programme of the FP5 Energy, environment and sustainable development programme includes work on reducing the rate of marine biodiversity loss, the sustainable exploitation of marine resources and the functioning of marine ecosystems. The Commission response follows a new report from environmental group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on the devastating impact of pollution on UK estuaries supposedly afforded special protection by the EU Habitats Directive. The report says that animal and plant life in several marine protected areas is under threat from nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients found in sewage and used in agriculture, industry and fish farming. The WWF argues that a change of government policy is required to tackle pollution at source and avoid the devastating effects of eutrophication. This occurs when excessive nutrients stimulate the growth of some marine organisms, whose population then balloons and kills off other species. Earlier in the year, Norway published a response to the FP6 research proposals calling for an increase, not a reduction, in marine research. The Norwegians called for greater links between coastal communities, policy makers and researchers as a result of increased marine activity and its effects on food supply and safety. The European Science Foundation has also called for the creation of a Marine European Research Area to address the effects of global warming and human activity on food stocks and marine biodiversity. A recent study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California found that the world's marine ecosystems are in a state of relative collapse as a result not of pollution but of overfishing dating back thousands of years. The report found that just a few centuries ago the oceans were teaming with now largely depleted wildlife such as whales, seals, turtles and fish, whose population has been dramatically reduced as a result of ecosystem imbalances brought about by overfishing.