Report of the Working Group on Marine Habitat Mapping (WGMHM)

The Working Group on Marine Habitat Mapping (WGMHM) convened in Woods Hole, USA from 17–20 April 2007 and was hosted by Tom Noji from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The meeting was chaired by David Connor (UK) and attended by 22 delegates from seven countries. Key points from meeting Major national and international marine habitat mapping programmes are underway in many parts of the ICES area (e.g. BALANCE – Baltic Sea, MESH – north-west Europe, various – North Sea, GOMMI – north-east America), delivered variously through new high quality survey, broad-scale modelling and the collation of existing datasets. Whilst the level of such activity is a reflection of the increasing policy and management demands for such information, WGMHM identified the need for improved coordination of this effort to ensure the resultant maps are fully compatible. This requires further work to develop common or harmonised classification schemes and to interface web delivery systems.