Shocking levels of Mersey pollution levels

Transcript

00:00 The Mersey is facing extreme levels of sewage pollution despite efforts to

00:04 clean up the river once dubbed the most polluted in Western Europe.

00:07 Researchers at Durham University used seaweed to examine nitrogen pollution in

00:12 the estuary and say the shock findings could mean that many other rivers and

00:15 estuaries in the UK are far more polluted than currently believed. The

00:19 study published in the journal Environmental Science Advances saw

00:22 researchers use dried seaweed from the collection at the World Museum in

00:26 Liverpool to investigate nitrogen pollution in the estuary over the past

00:30 200 years. Last year the results of the first survey of its kind in two decades

00:34 showed a huge increase in fish populations suggesting the Mersey was

00:38 finally recovering from industrial pollution. The research by the Mersey

00:42 Rivers Trust found the number of different kinds of fish in the estuary

00:45 had more than doubled. However Durham University's new research suggests that

00:50 sewage pollution in the Mersey is increasing to levels last seen in the

00:55 1980s when a public outcry sparked a major clean-up campaign.