1. Pål Buhl-Mortensen Institute of Marine Research Atlantic Seabed Mapping – Status & Direction Towards a CAN-EU-US Atlantic strategic seabed mapping pilot initiative: highlighting current drivers, approaches, activities, and priorities, and future opportunities, challenges and aspirations Galway Statement Implementation – Atlantic Seabed Mapping Workshop Dublin Castle, Dublin, 1st – 2nd December 2014

2. The North Atlantic ~20 mill km 2 Mean depth ~ 3900m Greatest depth 8380m Example: MAREANO mapping programme Started 2006 Total area covered with MBE: 131 000 km 2 € 6.5 mill/yr € 0.4 mill/1000 km 2 N Atlantic: € 6.5 billion € 130 mill/yr – 50 yr Realistic approaches Focus on priority areas Instrumentation of commercial vessels AUV etc Representative areas/transects Bathymetry – terrain descriptors at relevant scales

3. Spatial information for decision support 3. Sampling Biological/geological sampling of a selection of video locations 2. Video surveys Visual documentation of ~0.1‰ of the MBE- mapped seabed 1. Multibeam mapping II. Unsupervised classification I. Terrain analyses VIII. Selection of sampling locations Environmental proxies Biotope distribution Biological values (Biodiversity, vulnerability, productivity, etc) Sediments, Marine landscapes & Oceanography IV. Selection of video survey locations VII. Predictive modeling of biotopes VI. Faunal classification V. Video analyses Mapping activities Environmental variables III. Oceanographic modeling

4. Gaps and challenges Efficient use of existing data Efficient collection of new data Multibeam surveying Biotope characterisation analyses of imagery Collection of bottom samples Use of classifications Communities and environment Unified systems (CMECS, EUNIS, NiN etc) Ecosystem functions/monitoring (selection of locations) Suggestions and solutions Data repositories (PANGEA EMODNET) – Digitization of historic data Instrumentation of commercial vessels, Autonomous vehicles Semi-automatic image analyses/annotation tools Sampling designs supervised by spatial info on environmental/habitat variation Develop common systems for describing ecosystems/biotopes Develop functional definitions that enable comarisons between areas Selection of locations/biotopes/ indicators guided by spatial information on pressures, vulnerability and environmental relationships