Stimulated growth and safeguarding of the ICES oceanographic data bank
Original version
This report is not to be cited without prior reference to the authorsAbstract
During a number of years there has been a consent to build up and increase the ICES
oceanographic data base to the benefit of the member countries. In parallel to this
there has been an increasing demand for ICES to supply e.g. to organisations in
cooperation, various data sets or data products. In this connection it has repeatedly
been discovered that in many cases the data base does not contain enough data,
particularly concerning nutrients, to fullfill the requirements. Various reasons for
this is identified in the paper and mechanisms/ arrangements are proposed to
increase the supply of data to ICES with a guarantee that the data will not be
circulated for unauthorised use. A spin off effect of this is that the data quality will
increase for the contributing institutes as well as it will be possible to save data that
otherwise may be lost.