1 Introduction: Ecology for policy -- 1.1 Science for policy -- 2 The art of discharging -- 2.1 The sewage problem -- 2.2 Water pollution research -- 2.3 The contribution of ecology -- 2.4 Emerging limits -- 2.5 Marine pollution and IGOs -- 2.6 Pollution control -- 2.7 Summary and conclusions -- 3. The discovery of marine eutrophication -- 3.1 Freshwater eutrophication -- 3.2 Marine eutrophication -- 3.3 The relative importance of marine eutrophication -- 3.4 Marine eutrophication and official bodies -- 3.5 Summary and conclusions -- 4 The politics of marine eutrophication -- 4.1 1981-1985: The assembly of a problem -- 4.2 1986-1987: Political decision-making -- 4.3 Recapitulation: marine eutrophication constructed -- 4.4 1988-1990: towards the third North Sea Conference -- 4.5 Summary and conclusions -- 5 The management of marine eutrophication -- 5.1 New knowledge -- 5.2 New knowledge and the science-policy interface -- 5.3 Political developments -- 5.4 Summary and conclusions -- 6 Summary, discussion and conclusions -- References -- Annex 1 -- Annex 2 -- Annex 3 -- Index. Is ecological knowledge relevant for environmental policy and if so, to what extent and in what way? These are some of the basic questions addressed in this book. Triggered by a series of oxygen depletion events in German, Danish and Swedish coastal waters at the beginning of the 1980s, international policies to reduce inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus to the North Sea were agreed upon by the North Sea states. The book provides a critical analysis of the role, scientists and scientific information, as well as civil servants, have played in the formulation and implementation of these decisions.