Report of the ICES\NAFO Joint Working Group on Deep-water Ecology (WGDEC), 11–15 March 2013, Floedevigen, Norway.

• Main Authors: Auster, PJ, Bergstad, OA, Brock, R, Colaco, A, Duran Munoz, P, Ellwood, H, Golding, N, Grehan, A, Hall-Spencer, Jason, Howell, K, Ingels, J, Kenchington, E, McIntyre, F, Monot, L, Mortensen, PB, Neat, F, Nieto-Conde, F, Pinto, C, Ross, S, Vinnichenko, V, Watling, L
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Norway; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/1473

On 11 February 2013, the joint ICES/NAFO WGDEC, chaired by Francis Neat (UK) and attended by ten members met at the Institute for Marine Research in Floedevi-gen, Norway to consider the terms of reference (ToR) listed in Section 2. WGDEC was requested to update all records of deep-water vulnerable marine eco-systems (VMEs) in the North Atlantic. New data from a range of sources including multibeam echosounder surveys, fisheries surveys, habitat modelling and seabed imagery surveys was provided. For several areas across the North Atlantic, WGDEC makes recommendations for areas to be closed to bottom fisheries for the purposes of conservation of VMEs.