The purpose of the European Commission (EC) directive on the quality required of shellfish waters (the Shellfish Waters Directive) is to ensure a suitable environment for shellfish to grow. The original Shellfish Waters Directive (79/923/EC), adopted on October 30th, 1979, was repealed by the codified Shellfish Waters Directive (2006/113/EC), on December 12th, 2006.
Codification is a routine procedure that draws together an existing directive with any amendments made since it was introduced into a single, accessible document.
The codified directive keeps all existing measure that provide for the monitoring and assessment of shellfish waters and the setting of the water quality standards they are required to achieve. Any reference to the repealed Directive should be construed as referring to the new one.
NIEA is responsible for the monitoring and assessment of Northern Ireland's classified shellfish waters. The Shellfish Waters Directive is not intended to protect the quality of shellfish for consumption.
In the UK this is controlled by EC Regulations. Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004, whichoutlines the health conditions for the production and placing on the market of live bivalve molluscs for eating. In addition, Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 sets out the official controls of live bivalve molluscs from classified production areas.
The classification and monitoring of shellffish harvesting areas is carried out by the Food Standards Agency Northern Ireland (FSA NI), If you require more information the general FSA NI telephone number is 028 9041 7700.
Under the EC Shellfish Waters Directive, member states must identify coastal and brackish waters, which need protection or improvement in order to support shellfish.
Shellfish improvement programmes are established to enable the waters to conform to standards for a number of physical, chemical and bacteriological parameters.
In Northern Ireland one initial designation was made in 1983 and a further eight areas were designated in 1999.
Review of Shellfish Waters Designations 2009Following public consultation, a review of shellfish waters has been completed and the Department of Environment announced on June 26th, 2009, that it had classified new shellfish waters and modified existing ones.
These documents are also available on NIEA's "Publications" webpage which can be accessed from here.
Search for these documents in "most recent publications" or under "water quality".
Maps of Northern Ireland's Designated Shellfish WatersIn the future, maps showing Northern Ireland's designated shellfish waters will be produced. In the meantime co-ordinates from which maps could be prepared are outlined in the relevant documents.
For the moment, though, maps shown in the consultation document are sufficient.
Designated shellfish waters incl.ude:
As with other directives, mandatory standards and guidelines are outlined in this directive. The number of samples taken depends on the elements being monitored.The frequency may be reduced when the quality of water is known to be high.
For each parametre, the directive specifies the minimum number of samples to be taken, the standards to be met, and the percentage of samples that must meet these standards.
The standards have been met if the following percentage of samples analysed do not exceed the limit values:
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is currently revising the standards which must be met.
Parameters Measured| Parameters measured | Frequency of Sampling |
| pH | Quarterly |
| Temperature | Quarterly |
| Coloration | Quarterly |
| Suspended solids | Quarterly |
| Salinity | Monthly |
| Dissolved Oxygen | Monthly |
| Petroleum hydrocarbons | Quarterly |
| Organohalogenated substances | Half-yearly |
Metals
| Half-yearly |
| Faecal coliforms | Quarterly |