Data towards assessing non-indigenous species introductions in the Black Sea

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC) sets the foundation for community actions in the field of marine environmental protection and a robust and collaborative assessment of the implementation of measures by Member States (MS) of the European Union. In particular, the Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 lays down criteria and methodological standards on good environmental status (GES) for assessing non-indigenous species (NIS) pressure in marine waters. One of these criteria (i.e. D2C1) aims to minimise and where possible reduce to zero, the number of NIS newly introduced into Europe’s marine waters. To this end, the need for up-to-date data on newly introduced NIS is paramount to enable a quantitative assessment of D2C1. This paper provides a summary of the latest developments on the methodologies for assessing D2C1 and their application on the Black Sea dataset. The analysis identifies common practices and needs; strengthening NIS monitoring would improve the confidence of NIS assessment and allow for investigation of changes in NIS spread, ecological impact and effectiveness of management action. Additional efforts should also be made to ensure access to the monitoring results.