Environmentally hazardous substance mark (dead fish and tree)
The contents are dangerous to the aquatic environment: harmful to fish and other water life if spilled.
Who puts it on the box
The sender, for dangerous goods that meet the environmental criteria — not only those shipped as UN 3077 or UN 3082 — next to the class labels.
How to read it
Stop a leak reaching drains, soil or water. It appears as well as the class label (for example on a can of flammable wood preservative). Single packagings and inner packagings of up to 5 litres or 5 kg are exempt (ADR 5.2.1.8.1); the US uses the same fish and tree as its MARINE POLLUTANT mark, with the same 5 L / 5 kg exemption.
What it does not promise
It does not promise any other hazard is absent — the class label shows the main hazard — and it is not the GHS environment pictogram on the product’s own label, although the drawing is similar.
A mark on a parcel is the sender’s statement about what is inside and how it should be handled. It is not a certificate that the parcel is packed safely, that anyone handled it as marked, or that your carrier accepts it: for what you may send, read the carrier’s own terms.
- What it looks like
- A diamond with a black outline showing a bare, leafless tree and a dead fish lying on its back, black on white, at least 100 × 100 mm on packages.
- Regulation
- ADR 2025, section 5.2.1.8 (environmentally hazardous substance mark); UN Model Regulations 5.2.1.8
- Kind of mark
- A dangerous-goods mark or label from the UN Model Regulations, applied in Europe by ADR (road) and its sister agreements for rail and waterways, and on the same pattern by the US 49 CFR. It says the package holds dangerous goods.
- Also called
- EHS mark; Dead fish and tree; Marine pollutant mark
Related
Other marks with the same shape
Sources
Each document was fetched and read on the date shown. Written in our own words; quotations are the documents’ wording.
- Regulator guidance — Health and Safety Executive (UK regulator for the carriage of dangerous goods): Carriage of dangerous goods manual — Classification (environmentally hazardous substances, ADR 2.2.9.1.10 and 5.2.1.8) — Paragraph 12: all dangerous goods meeting the environmental criteria, not just UN 3077 and UN 3082, are environmentally hazardous and show the “dead fish and tree” mark; requirements mirror labels and placards (ADR 5.2.1.8 and 5.3.6). Checked 2026-09-27.
- Law adopting the same mark — US Government Publishing Office (govinfo), 49 CFR, edition of 1 October 2024: 49 CFR § 172.322 Marine pollutants (the fish-and-tree MARINE POLLUTANT mark) — The US MARINE POLLUTANT mark with the same fish and tree, square-on-point, sides at least 100 mm on non-bulk packages, border at least 2 mm; not required on single or inner packagings of 5 L or 5 kg or less. Checked 2026-09-27.