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External Data Spec

Regional seas around Europe - version 2, Oct. 2022

External Data Spec Published 10 Nov 2023
1 min read
The regional seas around Europe are the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the North-east Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Two of these regions are further divided into subregions: North-east Atlantic Ocean • the Barents Sea; • the Iceland Sea; • the Norwegian Sea; • the White Sea; • The Greater North Sea, including the Kattegat, and the English Channel; • The Celtic Seas; • The Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast; • Macaronesia. Mediterranean Sea: • The Western Mediterranean Sea; • The Adriatic Sea; • The Ionian Sea and the Central Mediterranean Sea; • The Aegean-Levantine Sea. The regional seas are harmonised with the boundaries established as the MSFD regions and subregions, as agreed by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive Committee in November 2016. The delineation of additional seas follows the boundaries established under Regional Sea Conventions and ICES ecoregions. The present map is provided in ESRI shape- and ESRI Geodatabase formats.
information.png Provider:
European Environment Agency (EEA)
information.png Dataset URL:
https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/51035cd2-3dea-4b39-94c7-e53946603c2a
information.png Other comments:

Access and use constraints

The map should not be understood as representing international marine borders. To this end, the following disclaimer will accompany the map: "This map serves as a working tool only and shall not be considered as an official or legally-binding map representing marine borders in accordance with international laws. This map shall be used without prejudice to the agreements that will be concluded between Member States or between Member States and non-EU states in respect of their marine borders.". No limitations to public access EEA standard re-use policy: unless otherwise indicated, re-use of content on the EEA website for commercial or non-commercial purposes is permitted free of charge, provided that the source is acknowledged (http://www.eea.europa.eu/legal/copyright). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).

No limitations to public access

EEA standard re-use policy: unless otherwise indicated, re-use of content on the EEA website for commercial or non-commercial purposes is permitted free of charge, provided that the source is acknowledged (http://www.eea.europa.eu/legal/copyright). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).

 

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Figure The EUCRA land and marine regions Spatially aggregated regions for four sub-continental land and four marine regions. Regionalisation for land regions based on UN Geoscheme for Europe.
Figure Trends in dissolved inorganic nitrogen and orthophosphate concentrations in Europe’s transitional, coastal and marine waters, 1980-2021 Trends in concentrations of nitrogen (dissolved inorganic nitrogen—DIN) and phosphorus (orthophosphate) in the upper 10m of the water column in European seas during the season of low phytoplankton growth (SLPG) are shown for the period 1980-2021. Green circles indicate stations with significant (p<0.05) decreasing trends; orange circles show stations with significant (p<0.05) increasing trends; and grey circles show stations with no significant trends. In these cases, p is a statistical term describing the probability that the trend is significant.
Figure Hazardous substances in mussels and oysters in Europe's seas There is one map for each of the contaminants measured in mussels and oysters, which are representative of the hazardous substances in marine organisms. In the map, each of the small dots represents a station (a location which is regularly monitored), coloured according to estimated concentration levels (low/moderate/high relative to environmental thresholds). The big pie diagrams show, for each region, the proportion of stations that have low/moderate/high concentration levels. The arrow by each pie diagram shows whether concentrations are in general improving (decreasing concentrations) or show no significant change. There were no cases of increasing trends.
Figure Occurrence of reduced oxygen concentrations in Europe's coastal and marine waters (average for the years 2011-2022) Observations are aggregated at the level of 100*100 km grid cells, and show the mean 25-percentile of dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations subdivided in four classes (<2 mg/l, 2-4 mg/l, 4-6 mg/l, >6 mg/l). The pie charts indicate the relative spatial coverage of areas with the four different concentrations of DO, aggregated by Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) marine regions - North-East Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea (smaller pie charts) and for all regions combined (large pie chart in centre). Oxygen concentrations above 6mg/l are considered to support marine life with minimal problems while concentrations less than 2mg/l (hypoxia, oxygen deficiency) are considered to cause severe problems.
Figure Average concentrations and trends of surface chlorophyll-a in Europe's transitional, coastal and marine waters Average summer surface chlorophyll-a concentration (left) and trends (right), in locations recently updated (last update>2016) with at least 5 years of observations, in the period between 1980 and 2021. Green circles indicate stations with significant (p<0.05) decreasing trends (i.e., improving); orange circles show stations with significant (p<0.05) increasing trends (i.e., deteriorating); and grey circles show stations with no significant trends. Colour keys of symbols and values are included in the legend.
Figure
Archived
Average concentrations and trends of surface chlorophyll-a in transitional, coastal and marine waters surrounding Europe Average summer surface chlorophyll-a concentration (left) and trends (right), in locations recently updated (last update>2016) with at least 5 years of observations, in the period between 1980 and 2021. Green circles indicate stations with significant (p<0.05) decreasing trends (i.e., improving); orange circles show stations with significant (p<0.05) increasing trends (i.e., deteriorating); and grey circles show stations with no significant trends. Colour keys of symbols and values are included in the legend.
Figure Temporal development of the ratio of the number of Lusitanian species to the number of Boreal species The maps show the temporal development of the ratio between the number of warm-favouring (Lusitanian) fish species and the number of cool-favouring (Boreal) fish species by The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) statistical area in 8-year intervals from 1982 to 2022.
Figure
Archived
Hazardous substances in marine organisms in European seas There is one map for each of the contaminants. In the map, each of the small dots represents a station (a location which is regularly monitored), coloured according to estimated concentration levels (low/moderate/high relative to environmental thresholds). The big pie diagrams show, for each region, the proportion of stations that have low/moderate/high concentration levels. The arrow by each pie diagram shows whether concentrations are in general increasing or show no significant change. There were no cases of decreasing trends.
Figure Trends in oxygen concentrations in the near-bottom waters of the North-East Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea regions (1989-2021) The maps show trends in annual 25-percentile of oxygen concentrations in near-bottom waters at stations with at least 6 years of observations in the period 1989-2021, and the number of trends for the North-East Atlantic and Baltic Sea, by three classes of DO concentrations: <4mg/l (including <2mg/l class); 4-6mg/l and >6mg/l. Only trends for time series ending after 2000 are included. The chart shows the number of time series with increasing trend/no trend/decreasing trend in the North-East Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea for grid cells with concentrations <4 mg/l, 4-6 mg/l and >6 mg/l group, for oxygen concentrations in the near-bottom layer during 1989-2021.
Figure
Archived
Occurrence of reduced oxygen concentrations in coastal and marine waters surrounding Europe (average for the years 2011-2022) Observations are aggregated at the level of 100*100 km grid cells, and show the mean 25-percentile of dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations subdivided in four classes (<2 mg/l, 2-4 mg/l, 4-6 mg/l, >6 mg/l). The pie charts indicate the relative spatial coverage of areas with the four different concentrations of DO, aggregated by Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) marine regions - North-East Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea (smaller pie charts) and for all regions combined (large pie chart in centre). Oxygen concentrations above 6mg/l are considered to support marine life with minimal problems while concentrations less than 2mg/l (hypoxia, oxygen deficiency) are considered to cause severe problems.
Figure
Archived
Trends in dissolved inorganic nitrogen and orthophosphate concentrations in transitional, coastal and marine waters in Europe, 1980-2021 Trends in concentrations of nitrogen (dissolved inorganic nitrogen—DIN) and phosphorus (orthophosphate) in the upper 10m of the water column in European seas during the season of low phytoplankton growth (SLPG) are shown for the period 1980-2021. Green circles indicate stations with significant (p<0.05) decreasing trends; orange circles show stations with significant (p<0.05) increasing trends; and grey circles show stations with no significant trends. In these cases, p is a statistical term describing the probability that the trend is significant.
Figure Landings and proportion of landings of commercial fish and shellfish for which stock assessments were conducted between 2019-2022, per marine region The figure shows the proportion of commercial European fish landings assessed per regional sea distinguishing between assessed and non-assessed stocks. For the assessed stocks a distinction is made between (i) landings of stocks for which information is available to determine Good Environmental Status (GES) for Fishing mortality (F) and/or Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) and (ii) landings for stocks for which information is not available to determine GES for F and/or SSB.
Figure State of European commercial fish and shellfish stocks (for which stock assessments were conducted between 2019-2022), in relation to the Good Environmental Status criteria for fishing mortality and reproductive capacity per marine region This figure shows the state of the assessed commercially exploited fish and shellfish stocks per European marine region, for which assessments were conducted in 2019-2022. Stocks for which adequate information is available to determine Good Environmental Status (GES) for fishing mortality (F) and/or reproductive capacity (spawning stock biomass (SSB)) are included (i.e. Z, total number of stocks; Y, total number of assessed stocks; and X, number of stocks for which adequate information is available to determine GES on the basis of these two criteria). A distinction is made between stocks: (1) in good status based on both fishing mortality and reproductive capacity; (2) in good status based on only one of the criteria - fishing mortality or reproductive capacity (either because one of the two criteria is not in good status or because there is only one available criteria, and it is in good status); and (3) not in good status based on both fishing mortality and reproductive capacity (may include cases where only one criteria is available and it is not in good status).
Figure
Archived
Trends in dissolved inorganic nitrogen and orthophosphate concentrations in transitional, coastal and marine waters in Europe, 1980-2021 Trends in concentrations of nitrogen (dissolved inorganic nitrogen—DIN) and phosphorus (orthophosphate) in the upper 10m of the water column in European seas during the season of low phytoplankton growth (SLPG) are shown for the period 1980-2021. Green circles indicate stations with significant (p<0.05) decreasing trends; orange circles show stations with significant (p<0.05) increasing trends; and grey circles show stations with no significant trends. In these cases, p is a statistical term describing the probability that the trend is significant.

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For references, please go to https://eea.europa.eu./data-and-maps/data/external/regional-seas-around-europe-version or scan the QR code.

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