What is ICES?
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is a European intergovernmental organization founded in 1902. Its primary goal is to provide scientific advice for the sustainable use of marine resources. The ICES Data Centre (IDC) is the hub that collects, curates, and disseminates the vast amount of marine and fisheries data that underpin this advice.
Located in Denmark, the IDC works closely with national agencies, research institutes and international bodies to ensure that data are reliable, uptodate, and accessible to a broad audience.
Key Data Holdings
The IDC hosts more than 200 million records covering a wide range of topics:
- Fishery Statistics: Catch, effort, and landing data from commercial vessels across the North Atlantic and adjacent seas.
- Biological Surveys: Age, weight, length, and reproductive condition from scientific trawl and acoustic surveys.
- Environmental Observations: Temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll and other oceanographic parameters.
- Stock Assessments: Model outputs and reference points for major commercial species.
- Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) tracks: Realtime position data for selected fleets.
- Historical Archives: Digitised records dating back to the early 20th century, essential for longterm trend analysis.
All datasets are stored in standardized formats and are linked to a robust metadata system, making them searchable and interoperable with external platforms.
Core Services
Data Management & Curation
The IDC follows FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Data undergo quality checks, validation against known scientific standards and are versioncontrolled to preserve provenance.
Advisory Support
ICES scientists rely on the centres datasets when producing annual stock status reports, ecosystem assessments, and risk analyses. The IDC provides customized extracts and analytical support for those activities.
Training & Capacity Building
Regular webinars, workshops and elearning modules teach users how to retrieve, visualise and analyse data using tools such as R, Python and the ICES Data Warehouse.
Data Publication
Data that meet openaccess criteria are published under Creative Commons licences, with DOIs assigned for citation tracking.
Access and Tools
All usersresearchers, managers, industry and the publiccan explore the IDC through several interfaces:
- ICES Data Warehouse: A webbased portal offering interactive maps, tables and download options for most datasets.
- ICES API: RESTful service that enables programmatic retrieval of data for integration into modelling pipelines.
- ICES Atlas of Marine Species (AMS): Taxonomic reference linked to occurrence records.
- R and Python Packages:
icesDatrasandicesVocabulariessimplify data import and metadata handling. - Custom Data Requests: For bulk extracts or nonpublic datasets, authorised users can submit a request form.
To start, visit the ICES Data Warehouse and create a free user account.
Collaboration and Partnerships
The IDC works in partnership with:
- National fishery agencies (e.g., DAFM Ireland, DAF Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries)
- European research infrastructures (e.g., Euro-FAIR, EMODnet)
- International organisations (e.g., FAO, NOAA, PICES)
- Academic networks and NGOs focused on marine conservation.
Joint projects often involve data sharing agreements, codevelopment of indicators, and coordinated monitoring programmes. These collaborations ensure that the IDC remains a central, trusted source for marine data across jurisdictions.
Contact & Further Information
For data enquiries, technical support or partnership proposals, please reach out to the Data Centre team:
- Email: datacentre@ices.dk
- Phone: +45 32 66 91 71
- Office: ICES, Doktor Olufsens Gade 12, 2100 Copenhagen , Denmark
Visit the official ICES website for news, upcoming events and policy documents.
