Zooplankton monitoring results in the ICES area, summary status report 2004/2005

In its strategic plan, ICES recognized its role in making scientific information accessible to the public as well as to fisheries and environmental assessment groups. During the 1999 Annual Science Conference, ICES requested that the Oceanography Committee Working Groups develop data products and summaries that could be routinely provided to the ICES community via the ICES website. The Working Group on Zooplankton Ecology (WGZE) has made it a priority to produce a summary report on zooplankton activities in the ICES area based on the time-series obtained from national monitoring programmes. WGZE has provided such an annual report since 2000. This is the sixth summary of zooplankton monitoring in the ICES area. Phytoplankton and temperature data for some locations corresponding to the zooplankton sampling sites are also included in this report. Our goal is to produce a Plankton Status Report with environmental variables in the near future.