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.