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.