The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) – a global organization for enhanced ocean sustainability. ​​​ICES is an intergovernmental organization whose main objective is to increase the scientific knowledge of the marine environment and its living resources and to use this knowledge to provide advice to competent authorities. ICES Science and Advice considers both how human activities affect marine ecosystems and how ecosystems affect human activities. In this way, ICES ensures that best available science is accessible for decision-makers to make informed choices on the sustainable use of the marine environment and ecosystems.

www.ices.dk

Collections in this community

Recent Submissions

  • ICES Guidelines for Benchmarks. Version 1. 

    International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2023)
    The guidelines describe the principles, elements, purpose, types, and prioritization of ICES benchmarks. The information in this document is relevant for the ICES expert groups delivering scientific evidence for benchmark ...
  • Workshop to evaluate proposed assessment methods and how to set thresholds for assessing adverse effects on seabed habitats (WKBENTH3). 

    Kenchington, Ellen; Raicevich, Saša; International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022)
    The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires EU Member States to achieve and maintain good environmental status (GES) across their marine waters. WKBENTH3 convened as a hybrid meeting to evaluate benthic assessment ...
  • Manual for the International Bottom Trawl Surveys. Revision IX. 

    International Council for the Exploration of the Sea; International Bottom Trawl Survey Working Group (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2015)
    The International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) in the North Sea has been conducted in the 1st quarter of the year since the beginning of the 1960s. The survey was first aimed at juvenile herring in the central and southern ...
  • Best practice for Data Management. Version 1.2. 

    Rasmussen, Jens; de Boois, Ingeborg (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022)
    This document is intended as a general guidance for creating and maintaining data collections in ICES – although a number of the general principles can be applied anywhere. It will particularly be a useful resource for ...
  • Marine and coastal ecosystem-based risk management handbook. 

    Cormier, Roland; Kannen, Andreas; Elliott, Michael; Hall, Paulette; Davies, Ian M. (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2013)
    Management of any environmental issue requires the application of management measures designed to eliminate, control, mitigate, or compensate for pressures related to the drivers of human activities to avoid potential ...
  • Handbook of fish age estimation protocols and validation methods. 

    Vitale, Francesca; Clausen, Lotte Worsøe; Ní Chonchúir, Gráinne (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2019)
    The Planning Group on Commercial Catch, Discards and Biological Sampling (PGCCDBS) 2012 was approached by the ICES Publications and Communications Group (PUBCOM) with the suggestion to combine the existing protocols on ...
  • Chemical aspects of ocean acidification monitoring in the ICES marine area. 

    Hydes, David J.; McGovern, Evin; Walsham, Pamela (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2013)
    It is estimated that oceans absorb approximately a quarter of the total anthropogenic releases of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year. This is leading to acidification of the oceans, which has already been observed ...
  • Best practices for the provision of prior information for Bayesian stock assessment. 

    Romakkaniemi, Atso (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2015)
    This manual represents a review of the potential sources and methods to be applied when providing prior information to Bayesian stock assessments and marine risk analysis. The manual is compiled as a product of the EC ...
  • The MSC experience: developing an operational certification standard and a market incentive to improve fishery sustainability. 

    Agnew, D. J.; Gutierrez, N. L.; Stern-Pirlot, A.; Hoggarth, D. D (2014)
    The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard for sustainable fisheries is represented by three high-level principles and a set of 31 indicators and scoring guidelines, known as the “default assessment tree”. Over the 14 ...
  • Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions. 

    Cornwall, Christopher E.; Hurd, Catriona L. (2016)
    Ocean acidification has been identified as a risk to marine ecosystems, and substantial scientific effort has been expended on investigating its effects, mostly in laboratory manipulation experiments. However, performing ...
  • Ecological best practice in decommissioning: a review of scientific research. 

    Fortune, I.S.; Paterson, D.M. (2018)
    The Oslo and Paris Commissions (OSPAR) decision 98/3 prohibits the dumping of man-made structures (MMS) offshore. However, there are regions of the world where MMS are recognized as providing an ecological and societal ...
  • Developing best practice for using Marxan to locate Marine Protected Areas in European waters. 

    Smith, Robert J.; Eastwood, Paul D.; Ota, Yoshitaka; Rogers, Stuart I. (2009)
    Several recent studies have investigated the use of the conservation planning software Marxan to design Marine Protected Area (MPA) networks in UK waters. The systematic conservation planning approach embodied by Marxan ...
  • Recommendations for best practice in deep-sea habitat classification: Bullimore et al. as a case study. 

    Henry, Lea-Anne; Roberts, J. Murray (2014)
    We assert that the reef framework-forming coral, Solenosmilia variabilis Duncan, 1873, is sometimes incorrectly recorded as another coral, Lophelia pertusa (Linnaeus, 1758) in surveys of deep-sea habitat (e.g. Bullimore, ...
  • Biological monitoring: General guidelines for quality assurance. 

    Rees, H. (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2004)
    These guidelines have been prepared by the ICES/OSPAR Steering Group on Quality Assurance of Biological Measurements in the Northeast Atlantic (SGQAE), as part of its role to encourage the production of biological data of ...
  • Biological effects of contaminants: Radioimmunoassay (RIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques for the measurement of marine fish vitellogenins. 

    Scott, A. P.; Hylland, K. (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2002)
    This document describes immunochemical methods to quantify the egg-yolk precursor protein vitellogenin in fish plasma. Vitellogenin is normally produced by the liver of mature female fish in response to 17β-oestradiol (E2) ...
  • Chlorophyll a: Determination by spectroscopic methods. 

    Aminot, Alain; Rey, Francisco (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2001)
    Chlorophyll a is the principal pigment in plants. As a biomass indicator of aquatic microalgae which support food webs in the sea, it is probably the most frequently measured biochemical parameter in oceanography. This ...
  • Biological effects of contaminants: Sediment bioassay using the polychaete Arenicola marina. 

    Thain, J.; Bifield, S. (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2001)
    The method described here is a whole-sediment reworker bioassay using the polychaete Arenicola marina, a direct deposit feeder that is widely distributed in European coastal waters and on the east coast of North America. ...
  • Biological effects of contaminants: Corophium sp. sediment bioassay and toxicity test. 

    Roddie, B. D.; Thain, J. E. (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2001)
    The method described here is a whole-sediment reworker bioassay using burrowing amphipods. This method description covers the use of Corophium spp., as this is the genus most commonly used in Europe, but the procedure can ...
  • Soft bottom macrofauna: Collection, treatment, and quality assurance of samples. 

    Rumohr, H. (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 1999)
    The aim of these recommendations is to standardize the methods used by different scientists for benthos surveys in order to increase the comparability of results for different areas. The results of ICES/HELCOM Quality ...
  • Biological effects of contaminants: Measurement of DNA adducts in fish by 32P-postlabelling. 

    Reichert, W. L.; French, B. L.; Stein, J. E. (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Copenhagen, Denmark, 1999)
    This document describes in detail the 32P-postlabelling method and its application to fish. Several recent studies have shown that the 32P-postlabelling method can be used to detect and measure the levels of DNA modified ...

View more