The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) launches its fully unified marine data service

The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), supported by the European Commission, launched its fully unified marine data service, integrating all the data into one single portal. Rapid access to reliable and accurate data and information is vital in addressing threats to the marine environment, in the development of policies and legislation to protect vulnerable areas of our coasts and oceans, in understanding trends and in forecasting future changes. For over a decade, more than 120 organisations involved in EMODnet have been working together to aggregate observations and marine data from various sources, process them according to international standards and make them freely available. It will allow researchers, marine managers, policy-makers and many more to retrieve hundreds of data and data products from one place, with a searchable unified catalogue. This new portal will benefit all marine data users, including policy makers, researchers, scientists, private industry and anyone interested.For decades, marine data collection has been very fragmented, to the detriment of efficiency, accessibility and shared ocean knowledge. Until the birth of the European Marine Observation and Data Network, EMODnet in short.As of today, all the available marine data and EMODnet thematic services are centralised into one single portal. This thematic unification not only simplifies the access to the available data sets but also enhances the user experience. Central to the upgrade and major improvement is the release of the common map viewer. It offers the users easier access to discover, visualise and download marine data across seven thematics (bathymetry, biology, chemistry, geology, human activities, physics, seabed habitats) from one place, powered by a searchable unified catalogue.The new portal offers services more suited to today’s needs. It better supports next generation ocean data and information management, as well as new technologies and approaches (for example the use of data to power Artificial Intelligence applications).