The Wadden Sea - A Particularly Sensitive Wadden Sea Area (PSSA)

The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which is the UN organization responsible for the world-wide regulation of shipping, has, at its meeting in London, 7-11 October 2002, agreed to designate major parts of the Dutch, German and Danish Wadden Sea as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA).

Application Document to the IMO MEPC

Designation of the Wadden Sea as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area. Application document submitted by Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 48) of the IMO:

• Main Document

• Annex 1: Description of the Particularly Sensitive Sea Area Wadden Sea - Coordinates

• Annex 2: PSSA chart - Proposed Particularly Sensitive Sea Area Wadden Sea Boundary 

• Annex 3: Existing Measures – measures adopted by IMO and at the national and EC-level

Download application documents as zip file (1.5 MB)

Decision Documents IMO - MEPC 48

• MEPC 48/21: Report of the Marine Environment Protection Committe on its Forty-eighth Session (pdf 1.5 MB)

• MEPC 48/WP.14: Identification and Protection of Special Areas and Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas. Report of the Informal Working Group (pdf 21 kb)

PSSA Feasibility Study

As agreed at the Stade Conference 1997, a Feasibility Study for a PSSA nomination has been made by the trilateral Wadden Sea cooperation and discussed at the Esbjerg Wadden Sea Conference in October 2001. The study was the basis for the PSSA designation in 2002.

Executive Summary (html)

Download report (pdf-file, 548 KB)