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  • The impact of fishing on benthic habitats has previously been investigated however; a conclusive classification of potentially sensitive habitats per gear type does not exist. Currently only qualitative estimates of fishery impact using Broad-scale habitat maps are possible. Here a sensitivity matrix using both fishing pressure (fishing Intensity) and habitat sensitivity is employed to define habitat disturbance categories. The predominant fishing activities associated with physical abrasion of the seafloor area are from bottom contacting towed fishing gear. The swept area of the aforementioned gear in contact with the seabed is generally considered a function of gear width, vessel speed and fishing effort (ICES. 2015). The varying characteristics of fishing gear, their interaction with the sea floor and species being targeted; provide scope for differing interactions with subsurface (infaunal) and surface (epifaunal) dwelling communities. An evaluation of the abrasion pressure and habitat sensitivity split into surface and subsurface pressure allows greater insight to the ecological effects. Fishing intensity was calculated annually and based on the area of sea floor being swept (or swept area ratio SAR) by gear type. Calculations are based on SAR’s of gear types per area, per year. Fishing pressure ranks and habitat sensitivity ranks obtained from WGSFD working group (01 WGSFD - Report of the Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data 2015) can be incorporated within a GIS environment to existing ICES fisheries data to provide habitat disturbance maps (fishing pressure maps+ habitat sensitivity maps) ICES. 2015. Report of the Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data (WGSFD), 8–12 June 2015, ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2015/SSGEPI:18. 150 pp.

  • Map at 1 degree resolution of 10 year linear trend in sea water temperature at 3 levels: surface, 500m , bottom

  • Data from a number of different sources have been integrated to provide new perspectives on fishing activities. Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) record and transmit the position and speed of fishing vessels at intervals of two hours or less. Fishing time can be calculated from the VMS data and combining this parameter with vessel logbook data, maps of fishing effort and intensity at different spatial and temporal scales can be calculated. The statistical software package “R” is used to extract the required information then re-interrogated to produce maps of fishing effort or intensity per month and year. The use of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data was not considered as combining AIS data with fisheries logbook data would pose issues namely; the ability of the AIS system to be switched off, only mandatory on vessels > 15 meters in length, cost involved to purchase data, and confidentiality.

  • Temporal series (annual mean values) with error of estimation and Long Term Average (LTA) with error of estimation of total nitrogen load for each river mouth where in situ data is available. Different sources can be mixed if any.

  • The challenge attempts to collect data on landings for the North Atlantic sea basin (i.e. north of the equator, excluding Caribe, Baltic, North Sea and Artic) and to compute: mass and number of discards by species and year. In addition, by-catch of fish, mammals, reptiles and seabirds. Data are presented in an Excel spreadsheet.

  • North Atlantic basin average at Pentadal (5-year) resolution time-series of the ocean heat storage (upper 700m) and kinetic energy. Use gridded information to calculate the local heat storage and average kinetic energy as a 5 year average and then calculate the basin average.

  • Pentadal (5-year average) resolution time-series of bottom temperature for North Atlantic ocean area deeper than 1000m. Calculate the 5 year average bottom temperature at each point on the grid and then calculate the area weighted average.

  • The challenge attempts to collect discards data for the North Atlantic sea basin (i.e. north of the equator, excluding Caribe, Baltic, North Sea and Artic) and to compute: mass and number of discards by species and year, including fish, mammals, reptiles and seabirds. Data are presented in an Excel's spreadsheet.

  • This product attempt to follow up on the sea level rise per stretch of coast of the North Atlantic, over 50 years as follows: • Characterization of absolute sea level trend at annual resolution, along the coasts of EU Member States (including Outermost Regions), Canada, Faroes, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Morocco, Norway and USA; The stretchs or coast are defined by the administrative regions of the Atlantic Coast: • from NUTS3** administrative division for EU countries (see Eurostat), and • from GADM*** administrative divisions for non-EU countries. ** Third level of Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics *** Global Administrative Areas For relative sea level trend for 50 years we extract the information from coastal tide gauges data available at each stretch of coast, if there is not a tide gauge there is a data gap. The product is Provided in tabular form and as a map layer.

  • Identified areas across the north Atlantic which have been flagged as priority locations for quality bathymetry data, in the context of expanded shipping traffic and port expansions. The reference to determine the priority survey areas in combination with shiping routes and port locations are the bathymetric data sources used for product 2( GEBCO, EMODnet bathymetry, USGS and CHS) and the depth uncertainty derived of Product 2. The adequacy assessment of the input characteristics of Product 3 is limited to the shiping routes and port locations.