Jacques Populus – Ifremer On behalf of the EUSeaMap project team Is EUSeaMap being used? Jacques Populus – Ifremer On behalf of the EUSeaMap project team

In UK UK envisage using EUSeaMap for future regional and sub-regional assessments. Future updates are anticipated UKSeaMap is being used to inform the designation of MPAs under national legislation and marine spatial planning (UKSeaMap 2010 and EUSeaMap planned to be aligned). The overall objective of our project is… 2

In France (100m resolution) MSFD initial assessment (four Regions) MPA Agency for regional site selection In Natura 2000 national tender, as a help for drafting maps where no surveys available (delivery of maps for 60 marine sites in June 2012) An update is planned in 2012 in the frame of a project assessing the relations between environment and pressures in support of MSFD The overall objective of our project is… 3

In the Baltic EUSEAMAP was used by: HARMONY for harmonising efforts under the MSFD Initial Assessment between Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Germany Helcom Holas In Denmark maps were also handed out to National fisheries institute The overall objective of our project is… 4

What’s the use of broad-scale marine habitat mapping: the Harmony project (Courtesy Jesper Andersen, Aarhus Uni.)

A few words about the background Marine Strategy Framework Directive Requires EU Member States to estimate cumulative pressures in their Initial Assessment(s) Neither methodology nor guidance is provided “Ecosystem Health of the Baltic Sea” A precursor for the MSFD Initial Assessment(s) Includes assessments ‘ecosystem health’ as well as a first attempt to estimate cumulative pressures and impacts on a Baltic Sea-wide scale HARMONY Follows up on the above work in the Baltic Sea Focus on the eastern North Sea (funded by DEN, GER, NOR, SWE) Results will be published within 2-3 months

A few words about the methodology … Root source Halpern et al. (2008): Pressure layers Baltic Sea = 52 layers North Sea = 27 layers Ecosystem layers Baltic Sea = 14 layers North Sea = 28 layers Appr. 1/3 of these stems from EUSeaMap and BALANCE Pressures and eco-system layers are then combined by weight scores (see description in Korpinen et al. 2012)

Preliminary results … The first ecosystem-based estimate of cumulative impacts in the North Sea High quality data layers on human activities and pressures are a must! And so is data on ecosystem components!!! Broad-scale marine habitat maps are instrumental as ecosystem data layers and the subsequent estimate of impacts!! The results can be used as decision support when ranked regionally and/or locally

AT EEA EU-wide MPA analysis Coastal report 2012 9 The overall objective of our project is… 9

Future prospects EUSeaMap is an important asset to support traditional survey mapping as it provides the “physical insight” pretty much overlooked by benthos ecologists There are thoughts about including available historic biological (habitats) into EUSeaMap Base layers (sediments, light, energy, “depth zones”) may be individually relevant for other uses. The overall objective of our project is… 10

Which basins next? The full contract title is fairly lengthy, so within the project we have adopted EUSeaMap for short. Overall coverage – more or less full coverage of MSFD regions/sub regions in contract (perhaps missing some of Norwegian waters). In addition we have data from the MESH area, extending the Celtic Seas further west and the Greater North Sea further north. Boundaries between sub-regions/regions – between adjacent regions we will work with contiguous data, spitting data along lines of latitude or longitude if we need to do so for processing. The different areas shown in this map are derived from Regional Sea conventions and ICES (Med). We will use these boundaries for this project, if we need to divide our maps. We hope that the biogeographic element to our work will contribute to defining the MSFD boundaries. 11

Other undertakings In GEUS (DK), an upgrade of the sediment map of the Danish part of the North Sea is underway (to be sent to EMODNET Geology). The next step is to upgrade the Danish Inner waters sediment map. In Spain there is currently an attempt to complete the maps with local data on habitats, as well as to help identify species distribution. The overall objective of our project is… 12