Bycatch of marine mammals dataset supporting the 2024 Belgian MSFD assessment of D1C1

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 1, criterion 1. It reports the mortality rate of marine mammals, in particular harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), from incidental bycatch in the Belgian part of the North Sea, combining strandings investigations, reported incidental catches and aerial abundance surveys.

Date (Creation): 2025-02-13

Date (Revision): 2026-09-14

Date (Publication): 2026-10-15

Title: Digital Object Identifier

Date (Creation): 2016-05-19

Code: https://doi.org/10.24417/bmdc.be:dataset:2921

Citation identifier: http://metadata.naturalsciences.be / bmdc.be:dataset:2921
Belgian Marine Data Centre

Other citation details: This dataset is composed of the following sources: (1) Jan Haelters, Kelle Moreau, Bob Rumes (n.d.). Bycatch of marine mammals Report MSFD 2024. (2) Jan Haelters (n.d.). Marine mammal strandings 2016-2021. (3) OSPAR assessment on Abundance and distribution of cetaceans. (4) OSPAR assessment on Grey seal pup production. (5) OSPAR assessment on Marine mammal by-catch. (6) OSPAR assessment on Seal Abundance and Distribution.

Point of contact

Organisation name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)	bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Custodian
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)	info@naturalsciences.be	Owner
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)	info@naturalsciences.be	Publisher

Keywords

Oceanographic geographical features
Reporting INSPIRE
Federal government

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Oceanographic geographical features

European Legislation Identifier

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/138 of 21 December 2022 laying down a list of specific high-value datasets and the arrangements for their publication and re-use (Text with EEA relevance)

Marine Regions

GEMET - Concepts, version 4.2.1

INSPIRE Registry: Priority Datasets

Directive 2008/56/EC

NERC Vocabulary Server - C45 Vocabulary version 3.0

Biological diversity maintained

Themes for open data catalogi in Belgium

Environment

INSPIRE Registry: feature concepts

Oceanographic Geographical Features

INSPIRE Registry: Spatial scope

National

High-value dataset categories

Earth observation and environment

Eionet Central Data Repository

(Criteria) D1C1 - Mortality rate from incidental by-catch

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: No conditions apply to access and use

Other constraints: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: No limitations on public access.

Use limitation: No conditions apply to use.

Classification: Unclassified

Spatial representation type: Text, table

Language: English

Topic category

Oceans

gml32:beginPosition: 2020-01-01

Reference system identifier: http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4258

Distribution format

Name	Version
text/html	Unknown
	Unknown
application/vnd.ms-excel	Unknown

Distributor

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)		bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Custodian

Distributor format

Name	Version
text/html	Unknown

Transfer size: 0.031056

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link	https://odims.ospar.org/en/submissions/ospar_abun_dist_msfd_2022_06/	OSPAR assessment on Abundance and distribution of cetaceans

Distributor

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)		bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Custodian

Distributor format

Name	Version
text/html	Unknown

Transfer size: 0.031069

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link	https://odims.ospar.org/en/submissions/ospar_abund_dist_mam_msfd_2021_06/	OSPAR assessment on Seal Abundance and Distribution

Distributor

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)		bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Custodian

Distributor format

Name	Version
text/html	Unknown

Transfer size: 0.031018

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link	https://odims.ospar.org/en/submissions/ospar_grey_seal_pup_msfd_2021_06/	OSPAR assessment on Grey seal pup production

Distributor

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)		bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Custodian

Distributor format

Name	Version
text/html	Unknown

Transfer size: 0.030987

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link	https://odims.ospar.org/en/submissions/ospar_mam_bycatch_msfd_2022_06/	OSPAR assessment on Marine mammal by-catch

Distributor

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)		bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Custodian

Distributor format

Name	Version
	Unknown

Transfer size: 0.594069

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link	https://odnature.naturalsciences.be/msfd_media/documents/D1-ANS-BE-MAMM-BYCATCH-2024-Bycatch_of_marine_mammals.pdf	Bycatch of marine mammals Report MSFD 2024. Jan Haelters, Kelle Moreau, Bob Rumes

Distributor

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)		bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Custodian

Distributor format

Name	Version
application/vnd.ms-excel	Unknown

Transfer size: 0.076042

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download	https://www.bmdc.be/NODC/ditsAttach/datasource/7733/DATA_ANS-BE-MAMM-BYCATCH-2024_2016_2021_stranding.xlsx	Marine mammal strandings 2016-2021. Jan Haelters

Digital transfer options

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
DOI	https://doi.org/10.24417/bmdc.be:dataset:2921	Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: Yes

Statement: The cause of death of stranded marine mammals is investigated through necropsy using well-established protocols; harbour porpoise abundance and distribution are assessed through aerial line-transect surveys (following the SCANS methodology); data are registered in the ICES seal database. Monitoring is coordinated by RBINS, with international cooperation on strandings recording (North Sea basin strandings database) and abundance assessment (SCANS I-III surveys, ICES seal database) under the OSPAR Coordinated Environmental Monitoring Programme, the EU Habitats Directive and the EU Common Fisheries Policy Data Collection Framework. Aerial line-transect distance-sampling survey platform; necropsy of stranded specimens. Line-transect distance-sampling analysis of aerial survey data; necropsy-based cause-of-death determination.

Metadata

File identifier: bmdc.be:dataset:2921 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2026-10-15T15:36:23.586Z

Metadata standard name: Geographic information -- Metadata

Metadata standard version: ISO 19115:2003/19139

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)		bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Point of contact

Other language

Language	Character encoding
Dutch; Flemish
French
English
German

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