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Europe Seas

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Prod-ID: DAT-208-en
Created 14 Apr 2021 Published 16 Apr 2021 Last modified 15 Dec 2022
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This page was archived on 17 Nov 2022 with reason: Other (New version data-and-maps/data/europe-seas-2 was published)
The present dataset compiles the marine regions and subregions listed in Article 4 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), together with other surrounding seas of Europe. The MSFD marine regions and subregions map was developed to support DG Environment and EU Member States in their implementation of the MSFD. It represents the current state of understanding of the marine regions and subregions and is subject to amendment in light of any new information which may be produced.

GIS data

Europe seas
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  • INSPIRE Metadata
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Metadata

information.png Reporting obligations (ROD)
information.png Rights:
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 (https://www.eea.europa.eu/legal/copyright). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).
information.png Disclaimer:
The present layer has been developed as a working tool only and shall not be considered as an official or legally-binding map representing marine borders in accordance with international law. 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.
information.png Data sources

All sources used for the production of the MSFD marine regions and subregions delineation, as well as the description of the process on how they have been agreed are in the Technical document on the "Delineation of the MSFD Article 4 marine regions and subregions".

information.png Owners:
European Environment Agency (EEA)
information.png Processors:
European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM)

Additional information

In 2008, the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) was adopted with the aim to protect more effectively the marine environment across Europe. The MSFD aims to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) of the EU's marine waters by 2020 and to protect the resource base upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend.

In order to achieve its goal, the Directive establishes European marine regions and sub-regions on the basis of geographical and environmental criteria. The Directive lists four European marine regions – the Baltic Sea, the North-east Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea (art. 4). These are located mainly within the geographical boundaries of the existing Regional Sea Conventions cooperation between the Member States of one marine region and with neighbouring countries which share the same marine waters.

One challenge of the Directive is that the MSFD does not specify the boundaries of the marine regions and subregions, and no formal definition of the marine regions and subregions exists elsewhere. As such, a process was initiated in 2010 to help define the individual marine boundaries under the MSFD Common Implementation Strategy.

The map of the marine regions and subregions describes the geometric delineation of those identified within the MSFD, art. 4. These regions are, to the extent possible, harmonized with other EU legislation where maritime boundaries are of relevance and specifically, the biogeographic regions of the Habitats and Birds Directive as well as the Maritime regions of Maritime Spatial Planning Directive. The map was agreed by the MSFD Committee in 2016.

For details in regard to the individual boundaries and process, please refer to the Technical document on the "Delineation of the MSFD Article 4
 marine regions and subregions".

 

Related content

Produced figures

Figure Trends in dissolved inorganic nitrogen and orthophosphate concentrations in transitional, coastal and marine waters in Europe, 1980-2019 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 1980-2019. 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 State of European commercial fish and shellfish stocks (for which stock assessments were conducted between 2016-2020), 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 2016-2020. 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 in 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 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 trends are in general decreasing (↓) or show no significant trend (→). There were no cases of increasing trends.
Figure Landings and proportion of landings of commercial fish and shellfish for which stock assessments were conducted between 2016-2020 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 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 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) statistical area in 5-year intervals from 1985 to 2020.
Figure Trends in oxygen concentrations in the near-bottom layer and number of trends, by concentration group (1989-2019) 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 1989-2019, 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, decreasing and no trend in the North-East Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea for the three classes of DO concentrations during the same period (1989-2019).
Figure Occurrence of reduced oxygen concentrations in coastal and marine waters surrounding Europe (average for the years 2009-2019) 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).
Figure Average concentrations and trends of surface chlorophyll-a in transitional, coastal and marine waters surrounding Europe Summer surface chlorophyll-a concentration averages (left) and trends (right), in locations recently updated (last update>2015) with at least 5 years of observations, in the period between 1980 and 2019. Colour keys of symbols and values are included in the legend.

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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/europe-seas-1 or scan the QR code.

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