Monitoring estuaries and coasts in the Basque Country, by AZTI

The area of marine management, at AZTI, has monitored estuaries and coasts since 1985. We started with a small team of 3 people, but we incorporated little by little new technologies and now we are a team of 18 scientists working on monitoring and assessment of marine ecosystems. We sample water, sediment and biomonitors, as well as phytoplankton, macroalgae, seagrasses, macroinvertebrates and fish. We control many different pollutants (metals, organics, pharmaceuticals) and we assess the ecological and chemical status of those elements, using single methods (PCQI, AMBI, M-AMBI, AFI, etc.) for each of them, but also integrative methods (NEAT). We are experts on assessing marine waters