Interim report of the HELCOM CORESET project

Existing monitoring
There is no monitoring on NIS in the Baltic Sea but data is available on species abundance and distribution
as well as on impacts of the most harmful species, which is stored e.g. in BINPASE system and Baltic Sea
Alien Species database as well as in published literature. Proven information provided by other sources such
as research institutes maybe taken into account.
Data can be viewed and downloaded from the internet on BINPAS-pages (http://www.corpi.ku.lt/
databases/index.php/binpas/) where BPL assessments can be done.
Description of data
All established non-indigenous species in an assessment area are taken into account. For indicator calculation,
see above.
Geographic coverage
Available data covers the whole Baltic Sea. Gaps in needed data depend on the size of the assessment
units. If the assessment is done for a small area, it is possible that some data is lacking concerning both
abundances and impacts.
Strengths and weaknesses of data
strengths: harmonized targets, calculation is made easy through the online BINPAS system.
weaknesses: differences in national data sets, gaps in knowledge on impacts of certain species, reliance
on expert judgement
Further work required
The descriptions of different abundance-distribution-range classes as well as impact classes should be
made more clear and developed further in order to minimize differences between index calculations made
by different experts.
References
Olenin, S., Minchin, D., and Daunys, D. 2007. Assessment of biopollution in aquatic ecosystems. Mar Pol
Bull 55:379–394
Olenina I, Wasmund N, Hajdu S, Jurgensone I, Gromisz S, Kownacka J, Toming K, Vaiciute D, Olenin S
2010: Assessing impacts of invasive phytoplankton: The Baltic Sea case. Mar Pol Bull, 60, 1691–
1700
Zaiko A, Lehtiniemi M, Narščius A, Olenin S 2011: Assessment of bioinvasion impacts on a regional scale: a
comparative approach. Biological Invasions DOI 10.1007/s10530-010-9928-z]
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