In the limelight

The activities of the ISPRA's Oceanographic Ship ASTREA

3 February 2011

ISPRA's Oceanographic Ship ASTREA arrived in Porto Santo Stefano on January 29 to make a series of environmental investigations according to a plan of activities agreed with ARPAT and approved today by the Scientific and Technical Committee headed by the Special Commissioner Franco Gabrielli. Participants belong to different work fields to undertake a multidisciplinary activity. The first phase of this investigation are intended to photograph the environmental situation at the time "0" or "pre-impact" and to control a few more critical parameters, trying to collect the largest number of information (physical, chemical, ecotoxicological and biological) about the state of the marine environment in the area of interest. The survey investigates the levels of the main pollutants for which a greater risk of presence in the area is feared, in order to record the current values that characterize the different environmental components: the water column, the sediment present in the superficial layer of the seabed and the various marine organisms of biological and natural value. The insights gained about streams, the seabed morphology and the estimation of the health of the organisms in the area will be compared to those of the further monitoring in order to understand the evolution of the environmental situation, the severity and extent of any impact in case of worsening of the emergency situation.