The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing the marine spatial plan for the period 2026 to 2034 in the Belgian marine areas defines 13 military use zones: Mine warfare exercise zone – QZR 040 (Art. 21§1.1°), Mine warfare exercise zone – NBH-10 (Wenduine) (Art. 21§1.2°), Mine warfare exercise zone – NB-01 (Westhinder) (Art. 21§1.3°), Mine warfare exercise zone (Buiten Ratel) (Art. 21§1.4°), Belgisch Nationaal Oefengebied voor Marineschepen (BNOM) (Art. 21§1.5°), Shallow Water Zone (Art. 21§1.6°), Zone for detonation exercises and operations (Art. 21§2), Lombardsijde firing sector: small sector (Art. 21§3.1°), Lombardsijde firing sector: middle sector (Art. 21§3.2°), Lombardsijde firing sector: large sector (Art. 21§3.3°), Paardenmarkt munitions disposal site (Art. 22§1). It replaces the 2020 Marine Spatial Plan. Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belgeBelgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 8, criterion 3. This dataset gives an overview of the observed slicks during aerial survey operations of the Belgian part of the North Sea (2016-2021). Besides this, all observations of illegal discharges of MARPOL annex I and II substances are included as an additional dataset.

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 8, criterion 2. This dataset reports the prevalence of external fish diseases in dab (Limanda limanda) in the Belgian part of the North Sea, as an indicator of the adverse effects of contaminants.

This dataset represents the location of the Princess Elizabeth zone in the Belgian Part of the North Sea as described in the Royal Decree of May 22th, 2019, establishing a marine spatial plan for the period 2020-2026. Art. 8. § 3.

The law of 13 June 1969 defines “Belgian Continental Shelf” as follows: the seabed and the subsoil of the marine areas adjacent to the Belgian coast but beyond the Belgian territorial sea.

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 10, criterion 3. This dataset reports the amount of plastic ingested (stomach contents) by Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) beached along the Belgian coast (environmental target: fewer than 10% of fulmars contain more than 0.1g of plastic in their stomach).

UNDER EMBARGO - This dataset contains the data on porewater nutrients, sediment granulometry, and pigment concentrations that were collected in the C-power offshore wind farm in spring, summer, and autumn of 2022 for the OUTFLOW project. Data were gathered at increasing distances from the scour protection layer (SPL) of a wind turbine, 7, 15, 25, and 75 m away from the edge. Cores were collected by divers, and a boxcore was used for samples 75 m away. From these cores, porewater nutrients were collected with rhizon samplers, and cores were slices in 0.5 to 2 cm slices, and each slice was analyzed for total organic carbon, total nitrogen, granulometry, and algal pigment concentrations.

This dataset represents the exact location of active telecommunication cables (verified in 2010) installed in the Belgian Part of the North Sea.

This dataset represents the exact location of electrical cables installed in the Belgian Part of the North Sea, including these for for the wind farms.

The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing the marine spatial plan for the period 2026 to 2034 in the Belgian marine areas defines 3 aquaculture zones: Fisheries research zone (Art. 17§2), Zone accessible to aquaculture and passive fisheries (Art. 18), Zone accessible to aquaculture (Art. 18§1). It replaces the 2020 Marine Spatial Plan. Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belgeBelgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.