Chemical products used by humans are found throughout the water cycle: clouds, water tables, rivers and the sea, the receptacle of river water. The Emergent’Sea report, put online on Wednesday October 15 by the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) and the Oceanic and Continental Environments and Paleoenvironments (EPOC) laboratory, attached among others to the CNRS, highlights the extent of the contamination of the coasts of mainland France.
From 2021 to 2024, scientists searched in sea water and in molluscs the presence of around a hundred contaminants, mainly pesticides, but also pharmaceutical substances and products antifouling used to limit the proliferation of algae and shellfish on the hull of boats.
The data collected on around thirty sites attest to the large-scale detection of these organic substances. “of emerging interest”, unregulated in the marine environment and whose effects are still poorly understood. “We find substances of emerging interest in all our monitoring points, which are located along the entire metropolitan coastline”notes Isabelle Amouroux, head of the unit dedicated to chemical contamination of marine ecosystems at Ifremer, who led the project. On average, 15 substances are quantified in seawater per monitoring site. Three-quarters of the 66 substances searched for in marine water appear at least once.
You have 73.75% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
