Standard Cen (Europe) and ISO Methods for Fish Sampling

Fish play a key role in the function of aquatic ecosystems being both predators and prey. Fish are also of key importance as a human food resource and, thus, economically important. Fish are also genetically and physiologically closely related to man and other vertebrates. This means that fish are favoured research animals in physiological studies and integral parts in hazard and risk assessment programs. This means that fish can be used as a link between hazard (toxicity) assessments and risk (environmental) assessments. Standardisation of toxicity test methods is essential for hazard ranking and classification, but also for research on the development of hazard and risk assessment methodology. Data bases with comparable toxicity test results are for instance essential for determinations and evaluations of species sensitivity distributions and QSAR models. This is not least important in the implementation of Reach. Standardisation of sampling methods is also essential in assessment and monitoring of ecosystem health, i.e. the risk for environmental perturbation and assessment and classification of water bodies according to the European Water Framework Directive. This presentation will focus on the status and future development of sampling and test methods using fish within CEN and ISO.