ABSTRACT
When dead lobsters from Kattegat, Denmark were shown on television in 1986 it generated an immediate increase in the political awareness for the marine environment. The Danish Parliament reacted by adopting a $17 million Marine Environment Plan and ordered farmers to reduce fertiliser run-off. The Marine Environment Plan called for frequent monitoring of the marine environment. In the same year, the government initiated marine research projects to improve the understanding of eutrophication processes (oxygen depletion) in Danish waters which, again, called for underwater surveys. Interest in the marine environment was also increasing in other European countries and, under the EUREKA initiative, EUROMAR was adopted in 1986 as an umbrella programme for European marine research and technology development. In 1989, the EC prepared the research programme for Marine Science and Technology (MAST) as a component of its framework programme of research, technology development and demonstration.
