The three digital maps provided in this product aim to assess the degree of Offshore windfarm siting suitability existing over a geographical area with a focal point where waters of France and Spain meet in Biscay Bay on 500 m depth. The maps display respectively the spatial distribution of the average and lowest windfarm siting suitability scores along with the average wind speed distribution over a time period of 10 years. They are part of a process set up to assess the fit for use quality of the currently available datasets to support a preliminary selection of potential offshore sites for wind energy development. To build these maps, GIS tools were applied to several key spatial datasets from the 5 data type domains considered in the project: Air, Marine Water, Riverbed/Seabed, Biota/Biology and Human Activities, collated during the initial stages of the project. Initially, each selected dataset was formatted and clipped to the study area extent and spatially classified according to suitability scores, to define raster layers with the variables depicting levels of current anthropogenic and environmental spatial occupation of activities, seabed depth and slope, distances to shoreline, shipping intensity, mean significant wave height, and substrate type. These pre-processed layers were employed as inputs for applying a spatial multi-criteria model using a wind farming suitability classification based on a discrete 5 grades index, ranging from Very Low up to Very High suitability. In adition to suitability maps, an average wind speed spatial distribution map for a 10 years period, at 10 m height, was obtained over the study area from the raster processing of a wind speed time series of monthly means available from daily wind analysis data. The characteristics of the datasets used in this exercise underwent an appropriateness evaluation procedure based on a comparison between their measured quality and those specified for the product. All the spatial information made available in these maps and from the subsequent appropriateness analysis of the datasets, contributes to a clearer overview of the amount of public-access baseline knowledge currently existing for the North Atlantic basin area.

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.

Phyto plankton Abundance: Identify the 3 most abundant phytoplankton species in the North Atlantic and calculate a timeseries of their abundance within the basin.

This data product selects sample areas of digital bathymetry, chosen for their relevance to marine activities and data sources alternative to GEBCO. The approach for building the digital map of water depth is to use GEBCO as a baseline and look at a set of sample areas where GEBCO could be improved upon. Sample areas have also been selected to be representative of each continent bordering the Atlantic and expected future requirements. Data sources include GEBCO, EMODNET, USGS and CHS.

Map at 1 degree resolution of 50-year linear trend in sea water temperature at 3 levels: surface, 500m, bottom.

Pentadal time-series of the area in the North Atlantic (IHO, 1953) where ice occurred. On a 1 degree grid find all cells that experienced ice in at least 1 month of each 5 year period between 1915 and 2014, and then calculate the total area that these cells covered.

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.

Map the occurrence of ice at 1-degree resolution over different periods of the last century (1915-2014, 1965-2014, 2005-2014, 2009-2014). For each entire period (100, 50, 10, 5 years) find and map all cells of the 1 degree grid that experience ice conditions in at least 1 month.

The Oil Platform Leaks challenge attempts to determine the likely trajectory of the slick and to release rapid information on the oil movement and environmental and coastal impacts in the form of two impacts bulletins at 24 and 72 hours. Each bulletin indicates what information can be provided, evidencing the fitness for use of the current available marine datasets, as well as pointing out gaps in the current Emodnet data collection framework. This first product relies on an oil spill modelling tool operated by CLS and provide the status of datasets for the purpose of the oil Spill simulation exercice. The OSCAR model (Oil Spill Contingency and Response, operated at CLS under license) made available by SINTEF and used to simulate the oil spill fate and weathering at water surface, in the water column and along shorelines. The declarative data given for the OSCAR simulation are: Date and time of oil spill, Location and depth of oil spill, Oil API number or oil type name, Oil spill amount or oil spill rate

Annual time series of salmon recruitement biomass (2005-2014): • Time series of atlantic salmon recruitment • Location and Long Term Average (LTA) of atlantic salmon recruitment per Management Unit, that could be a river, basin district, a region or a whole country.