EVHOE (« Evaluation Halieutique de l’Ouest Européen ») surveys provide observational data on bentho-demersal communities on the continental shelves of the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea for more than 30 years. The surveys operate a standardized bottom trawling gear and are conducted from 15 to 600 m depth, usually in the fourth quarter of the year, starting at the end of October. The main objectives are the monitoring of 22 commercial stocks of fish species and 10 cephalopods from the North-East Atlantic. The dataset also provide a description of regional diversity, including 250 taxa of fish, 45 taxa of cephalopods and others “commercial” invertebrates and, from 2008, more than 350 other taxa of benthic invertebrates. The acquisition of this dataset, organised by IFREMER, is steered by the IBTS working group organised within the framework of ICES. It is being funded by the European DCMAP programme, in coordination with the French Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture (DGAMPA). This dataset is of great interest for the long-term monitoring of the continental shelves of the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea. Moreover, on a larger scale, by being integrated into a European network of bottom trawl surveys, these data play an essential role in studying the evolution of ecosystems from continental shelves to the scale of the eastern North Atlantic. From April 2025, the proposed data have been updated in the latest standard format recognised by IFREMER (‘ELFIC’ format). The 5 data tables are compiled in a .zip file which also contains a document detailing the content of each table and their respective data fields.

The raster corresponds to the predicted Mediterranean bioregions of megabenthic communities.

This visualization product displays the size of litter in percent per net per year from research and monitoring protocols. EMODnet Chemistry included the collection of marine litter in its 3rd phase. Before 2021, there was no coordinated effort at the regional or European scale for micro-litter. Given this situation, EMODnet Chemistry proposed to adopt the data gathering and data management approach as generally applied for marine data, i.e., populating metadata and data in the CDI Data Discovery and Access service using dedicated SeaDataNet data transport formats. EMODnet Chemistry is currently the official EU collector of micro-litter data from Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) National Monitoring activities (descriptor 10). A series of specific standard vocabularies or standard terms related to micro-litter have been added to SeaDataNet NVS (NERC Vocabulary Server) Common Vocabularies to describe the micro-litter. European micro-litter data are collected by the National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs). Micro-litter map products are generated from NODCs data after a test of the aggregated collection including data and data format checks and data harmonization. A filter is applied to represent only micro-litter sampled according to research and monitoring protocols as MSFD monitoring. To calculate percentages for each size, formula applied is: Size (%) = (∑number of particles of each size)*100 / (∑number of particles of all size) When the number of microlitters was not filled or was equal to zero, it was not possible to calculate the percentage. Standard vocabularies for microliter sizes are taken from Seadatanet's H03 library (https://vocab.seadatanet.org/v_bodc_vocab_v2/search.asp?lib=H03 ). Different protocols with different degrees of precision were used to classify the sampled micro-litters. Consequently, on the map, the distribution of micro-litter in the size classes depends on the protocol applied during the survey. Warning: the absence of data on the map does not necessarily mean that they do not exist, but that no information has been entered in the National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC) for this area.

As part of the European Horizon Europe FOCCUS project (https://foccus-project.eu/), the metadata inventory of European coastal platforms has been extracted. The inventory was based on the following History and Latest products, downloaded from the CMEMS website (https://marine.copernicus.eu/fr/acces-donnees) at: 1) Global Ocean-In-Situ Near-Real-Time Observation, 2) Atlantic Iberian Biscay Irish Ocean-In-Situ Near Real Time Observations, 3) Mediterranean Sea-In-Situ Near Real Time Observations, 4) Atlantic-European North West Shelf-Ocean In-Situ Near Real Time Observations. To carry out this inventory, it was decided to target only coastal platforms, located less than 200km from the coast and at a depth of less than 400m. For mobile platforms, it was also decided to focus only on the first position in the file. This data must be located within 200 km of the coast and at a depth of less than 400 m. In this inventory, FerryBox platforms have all been considered as coastal platforms. The following platforms were extracted from the products: BO (Bottles), CT (CTD), DB (Drifting Buoys), FB (Ferry Box), GL (Gliders), HF (High Frequency Radar), MO (Mooring), PF (Profiling Float), TG (Tide Gauge) and XB (XBT). Once the metadata had been extracted from the files, duplicates were removed (files with the same names). Duplicate platforms of type _TS_ and _WS_ were merged (date and parameters). Latest‘ files have been merged with ’History" files. Missing metadata have been replaced in the Excel file by ‘Missing Data’. Some old dates were also revised by hand because they had been badly extracted, as well as some institution names that included special characters. Platforms located on estuaries/rivers/lakes/ponds have also been removed by hand. This inventory identified a total of 10,479 coastal platforms.

The ODATIS Ocean Color MR product provides optical reflectance measurements as well as related physical, subsurface and biogeochemical parameters at 300 m spatial resolution along the entire French metropolitan coastal zone, according to the criteria defined by the ODATIS Scientific Expert Consortium (CES) dedicated to ocean color : https://www.odatis-ocean.fr/activites/consortium-dexpertise-scientifique/ces-couleur-de-locean. Product processing is performed from Level 1 to Level 3, and is reprojected on a regular square grid format. Data are temporally aggregated and provided as daily, 8 day and monthly products. The "Basic" version of the ODATIS MR product includes data from the MODIS sensor processed with the "NIR/SWIR" atmospheric correction method (Wang and Shi, 2007), as well as data from the MERIS and OLCI-A/B sensors processed with the Polymer atmospheric correction (Hygeos, https://www.hygeos.com/polymer). List of available parameters for each sensor: • MODIS : NRRS555, CHL-OC5, SPM-G, CDOM, T-FNU, SST-NIGHT • OLCI-A/B / MERIS : NRRS560, CHL-OC5, SPM-G, CDOM, T-FNU

Particularly suited to the purpose of measuring the sensitivity of benthic communities to trawling, a trawl disturbance indicator (de Juan and Demestre, 2012, de Juan et al. 2009) was proposed based on benthic species life history traits to evaluate the sensibility of mega- and epifaunal community to fishing pressure known to have a physical impact on the seafloor (such as dredging and bottom trawling). The selected biological traits were chosen as they determine vulnerability to trawling: mobility, fragility, position on substrata, average size and feeding mode that can easily be related to the fragility, recoverability and vulnerability ecological concepts. Life history traits of species have been defined from the BIOTIC database (MARLIN, 2014) and from information given by Le Pape et al. (2007), Brindamour et al. (2009) and Garcia (2010). For missing life history traits, additional information from literature has been considered. The five categories retained are life history functional traits that were selected based on the knowledge of the response of benthic taxa to trawling disturbance (de Juan and Demestre, 2012). They reflect respectively the possibility to avoid direct gear impact, to benefit from trawling for feeding, to escape gear, to get caught by the net and to resist trawling/dredging action, each of these characteristics being either advantageous or sensitive to trawling. Then, to allow quantitative analysis, a score was assigned to each category: from low vulnerability (0) to high vulnerability (3). The five categories scores were then summed for each taxon (the highly vulnerable taxon could reach the maximum score is 15) and this value may be considered as a species index of sensitivity to trawling disturbance. The scores of 812 taxa commonly found in bottom trawl by-catch in the southern North Sea, English Channel and north-western Mediterranean were described.

This visualization product displays the spatial distribution of seafloor litter density per trawl. EMODnet Chemistry included the collection of marine litter in its 3rd phase. Since the beginning of 2018, data of seafloor litter collected by international fish-trawl surveys have been gathered and processed in the EMODnet Chemistry Marine Litter Database (MLDB). The harmonization of all the data has been the most challenging task considering the heterogeneity of the data sources, sampling protocols (OSPAR and MEDITS protocols) and reference lists used on a European scale. Moreover, within the same protocol, different gear types are deployed during bottom trawl surveys. In cases where the wingspread and/or number of items were/was unknown, it was not possible to use the data because these fields are needed to calculate the density. Data collected before 2011 are concerned by this filter. When the distance reported in the data was null, it was calculated from: - the ground speed and the haul duration using the following formula: Distance (km) = Haul duration (h) * Ground speed (km/h); - the trawl coordinates if the ground speed and the haul duration were not filled in. The swept area was calculated from the wingspread (which depends on the fishing gear type) and the distance trawled: Swept area (km²) = Distance (km) * Wingspread (km) Densities were calculated on each trawl and year using the following computation: Density (number of items per km²) = ∑Number of items / Swept area (km²) Then a grid with 30km x 30km cells was used to calculate the weighted mean of densities in each cell from the formula : Weighted mean (number of items per km²) = ∑ (Distance (km) * Density (number of items per km²)) / ∑ Distance (km) Percentiles 50, 75, 95 & 99 were calculated taking into account data for all years. More information on data processing and calculation are detailed in the attached methodology document. Warning: the absence of data on the map does not necessarily mean that they do not exist, but that no information has been entered in the Marine Litter Database for this area. This work is based on the work presented in the following scientific article: O. Gerigny, M. Brun, M.C. Fabri, C. Tomasino, M. Le Moigne, A. Jadaud, F. Galgani, Seafloor litter from the continental shelf and canyons in French Mediterranean Water: Distribution, typologies and trends, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 146, 2019, Pages 653-666, ISSN 0025-326X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.07.030.

The network was initiated by IFREMER from 1993 to 2009 (under the acronym REMORA) to study the rearing performance of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas at a national scale. To do so, the network monitored annually the mortality and growth of standardized batches of 18-month-old oysters. Starting in 1995, the monitoring of the rearing performance of 6-month-old oyster spat was integrated into this network. These sentinel batches were distributed simultaneously each year on 43 sites and were monitored quarterly. These sites were distributed over the main French oyster farming areas and allowed a national coverage of the multiannual evolution of oyster farming performances. Most of the sites were located on the foreshore at comparable levels of immersion. Field studies were carried out by the "Laboratoires Environnement Ressources" (LER) for the sites included in their geographical area of investigation. Following the increase in spat mortality in 2008, the network evolved in 2009 (under the acronym RESCO). From this date, the network selected 13 sites among the 43 sites previously monitored in order to increase the frequency of visits (twice a month) and the number of sentinel batches. More precisely, sentinel batches of oysters corresponding to different origins (wild or hatchery, diploid or triploid) and to two rearing age classes (spat or 18-month-old adults) were selected. The monitoring of environmental variables (temperature, salinity) associated with the 13 sites was also implemented. The actions of the network have thus contributed to disentangle the biotic and abiotic parameters involved in mortality phenomena, taking into account the different compartments (environment / host / infectious agents) likely to interact with the evolution of oyster rearing performance. Finally, since 2015, the network has merged the RESCO and VELYGER networks to adopt the acronym ECOSCOPA. The general objective of this current network is to analyze the causes of spatio-temporal variability of the main life traits (Larval stage - Recruitment - Reproduction - Growth - Survival - Cytogenetic abnormalities) of the cupped oyster in France and to follow their evolution on the long term in the context of climate change. To do this, the network proposes a regular spatio-temporal monitoring of the major proxies of the life cycle of the oyster, organized in three major thematic groups: (1) proxies related to growth, physiological tolerance and survival of experimental sentinel populations over 3 age classes: (2) proxies related to reproduction, larval phase and recruitment of the species throughout its natural range in France, and: (3) proxies related to environmental parameters essential to the species (weather conditions, temperature, salinity, pH, turbidity, chlorophyll a and phytoplankton) at daily or sub-hourly frequencies. Working in a geographical network associating several laboratories, ECOSCOPA provide these monitoring within 8 sites selected among the previous ones to ensure the continuity of the data acquisition. Today, these 8 sites are considered as ecosystems of common interest, contrasted, namely : - The Thau lagoon - The Arcachon basin - The Marennes Oléron basin - The Bourgneuf Bay - The bay of Vilaine - The bay of Brest - The bay of Mont Saint Michel - The bay of Veys The ECOSCOPA network is therefore one of the relevant monitoring tools on a national scale, allowing to objectively measure through different proxies the general state of health of cultivated and wild oyster populations, and this for the different sensitive phases of their life cycle. This network aims at allowing a better evaluation, on the long term, of the biological risks incurred by the sector but also by the ecosystems, in particular under the increasing constraint of climatic and anthropic changes. Figure : Sites monitored by the ECOSCOPA network  

This visualization product displays the total abundance of marine macro-litter (> 2.5cm) per beach per year from non-MSFD monitoring surveys, research & cleaning operations. EMODnet Chemistry included the collection of marine litter in its 3rd phase. Since the beginning of 2018, data of beach litter have been gathered and processed in the EMODnet Chemistry Marine Litter Database (MLDB). The harmonization of all the data has been the most challenging task considering the heterogeneity of the data sources, sampling protocols and reference lists used on a European scale. Preliminary processings were necessary to harmonize all the data: - Exclusion of OSPAR 1000 protocol: in order to follow the approach of OSPAR that it is not including these data anymore in the monitoring; - Selection of surveys from non-MSFD monitoring, cleaning and research operations; - Exclusion of beaches without coordinates; - Some categories & some litter types like organic litter, small fragments (paraffin and wax; items > 2.5cm) and pollutants have been removed. The list of selected items is attached to this metadata. This list was created using EU Marine Beach Litter Baselines, the European Threshold Value for Macro Litter on Coastlines and the Joint list of litter categories for marine macro-litter monitoring from JRC (these three documents are attached to this metadata). - Exclusion of surveys without associated length; - Normalization of survey lengths to 100m & 1 survey / year: in some case, the survey length was not 100m, so in order to be able to compare the abundance of litter from different beaches a normalization is applied using this formula: Number of items (normalized by 100 m) = Number of litter per items x (100 / survey length) Then, this normalized number of items is summed to obtain the total normalized number of litter for each survey. Finally, the median abundance for each beach and year is calculated from these normalized abundances per survey. Percentiles 50, 75, 95 & 99 have been calculated taking into account other sources data for all years. More information is available in the attached documents. Warning: the absence of data on the map does not necessarily mean that they do not exist, but that no information has been entered in the Marine Litter Database for this area.

In order to better characterize the population structure of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in the Bay of Biscay, a single digest RADseq (SbfI enzyme) protocol was used to obtain paired-end, 150bp NGS sequences on the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 sequencing platform. D. delphis samples from the Western North Atlantic, and samples from three other delphinid species were included as outgroups.