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Datasets / International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)

Live hard coral cover (Essential Ocean Variable) in European waters (2025)

Hard coral cover and composition

This layer shows the current known extent and distribution of live hard coral cover in European waters, collated by EMODnet Seabed Habitats. The point and polygon layers were last updated in 2023. Lophelia pertusa and Coral gardens are both on the OSPAR List of threatened and/or declining species and habitats. The purpose was to produce a data product that would provide the best compilation of evidence for the essential ocean variable (EOV) known as Hard coral cover and composition (sub-variable: Live hard coral cover and extent), as defined by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The geographic extent of this product was extended in 2023 to include jurisdictional waters (including continental shelf and claimed extended continental shelf) of EU Member States, the United Kingdom (UK) and Norway including areas in the Caribbean Sea. This product was updated further in 2025.

Data and resources

Additional information

Temporal extent2019-01-01 – ongoing
Date (revision)2023-09-20
StatusonGoing
Update frequencyirregular
Metadata languageen
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution 4.0
Source metadataISO 19115 XML
Last updated2026-11-04
Created2026-11-04
APIpackage_show