Report of the Biological Data Products Workshop of the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet)

From 25 till 26 of February 2010, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) organized a workshop on biological data products in Oostende, Belgium. This workshop was organized within the framework of the upcoming European Marine Observation and Data Network, EMODnet, launched by the Maritime Policy of the European Commission. 57 participants from 42 excellent institutes involved in marine biological data collection, marine research and marine policy across Europe attended the workshop. The workshop had three main objectives: (1) to discuss the marine biological data availability and gaps in Europe, (2) to demonstrate the prototype of the EMODnet biological data portal to different user groups and (3) to define a set of derived biological data products relevant for private bodies, public authorities and researchers. A huge amount of reliable European marine biological data and information was presented to the public. These data are available and despite some temporal, spatial and taxonomic limitations, data are already very useful for analyses. There was a consensus amongst workshop participants that the look and feel and functionalities of the EMODnet biological prototype portal, visualizing both data observations and data products, were meeting the requirements. Although the user groups were very diverse, being people from the scientific community, people involved in the European marine policy and coastal and marine practitioners, a number of striking similarities amongst data products were found. In the different user discussion groups, four different sets of marine biological data products were identified as priority biological data products being: (1) species distribution maps and trends, (2) species sensitivity and vulnerability maps, (3) species attributes (functional groups, HAB’s, invasive species, red list or protected species) and (4) biodiversity indices. Within the biological EMODnet preparatory action, a few data analysis workshops will be organized in the near future (2011) to produce some of the data products identified during this workshop. The same community and other relevant stakeholders, identified during the meeting will be involved in this process

Belgian sea fisheries statistics: compiling historical data to recover a wider perspective

Belgian sea fisheries may be considered small or insignificant in the global context. Nevertheless, it does provide an interesting case study to look at trends in catch and landings statistics, and evolutions in the fleet size and capacity. With a tradition in beam trawl fishery (>90% of the actual fleet) and only three fishing ports where the main part of catches are landed, catch statistics are quite detailed and complete. The FAO statistics available for Belgian sea fisheries included per annum landings (tonnes) and values (EUR) per species, for larger fishing areas (e.g. ICES rectangles) from 1970 onwards. Recent FAO/ICES efforts have completed data from 1950 onwards. Nevertheless, ‘older’ data is available in fragmented publications and journals. Although source documents are often disperse, describing and storing has been made possible thanks to the support of the Sea Fisheries Service (DVZ), the Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research (ILVO), the Provincial Library West-Flanders and the Library of the City of Antwerp. After a thorough inventory of sea fisheries statistics from the late 19th century onwards, VLIZ is now collating data from these paper sources to compile historical time series. This requires previous storage, handling and quality control. A fair degree of continuity in the reporting is achieved starting 1929, although earlier data is available. Reporting focuses on 1) landings and value of landings per species by port, per annum, 2) landings and values of landings per species by fishing ground, per annum. Monthly data is reported from the early 1950’s onwards. Additional reporting is available on the size and capacity of the fleet, fishing effort, and socio-economic aspects of the sector. Resulting graphs and tables that depict trends in landings and values per species, from the early 20th century, are presented in fact sheets per species. Information on taxonomy, biology and ecology, distribution and conservation status (where available), provides the interested reader with further background and links to reliable sources. For more information on the project: http://www.vliz.be/NL/Zeecijfers/Zeecijfers_Intro (Dutch and English)

The future of MarBEF’s data legacy

After five years of MarBEF, Europe is now in a position to take the lead in marine biodiversity research. The MarBEF community has built the world’s largest databases on macrobenthos, meiobenthos and pelagic marine species. Well over 100 scientists from 54 institutions in 17 countries have contributed not less than 223 datasets to the MarBEF data system. This has resulted in 4.3 million distribution records of 17,000 species in all the European seas and many of theworld’s oceans. The oldest record dates back to 1768