Zooplankton monitoring results in the ICES area, summary Status Report 2003/2004

The ICES strategic plan recognised the ICES role in making scientific information accessible to the public in addition to the fisheries and environmental assessment groups. Thus, during the 1999 Annual Science Conference a general request was made from ICES to the Oceanography Committee Working Groups to develop data products and summaries that could be provided on a routine basis to the ICES community via the ICES website. The Working Group on Zooplankton Ecology (WGZE) considers it a priority action to produce a summary report on zooplankton activities in the ICES area based on the time-series obtained in the national monitoring programmes. The WGZE has edited such an annual report since 2000. This is the fifth summary on zooplankton monitoring results in the ICES area. Phytoplankton and tem-perature data for some locations corresponding to the zooplankton sampling sites are also included in this report. The final goal will be the production, in the near future, of a Plankton Status Report with environmental variables.