At the start of each New Year, it has become our tradition to take a moment to reflect on the past, take stock of our achievements and look forward to what the coming year will bring for our growing network of partners and users.

We’re excited to announce the release of a new data product available on EMODnet Chemistry: a collection of new digital maps of contaminants. These maps visualise data from more than 100 data providers, following intense work by EMODnet Chemistry of data aggregation, harmonization, analysis and validation.

We’re delighted to announce the release of a new data product available on EMODnet Human Activities: traffic density maps. Based on AIS data from ships, these maps were prepared by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in response to a series of ad-hoc requests to complement specific studies or projects.

Communication and Partnership Relations Officer ‐ Secretariat of the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). Deadline extended! Closing date for applications: 13 January 2020 10:00 CET

We are delighted to announce the release of the film and report of Open Sea Lab II! We hope that these outputs reflect the openness, creativity and dynamism of this three-day, deep-dive into open marine data.

Do you have some sleeping marine biological datasets that can be useful for others? Apply for an EMODnet Biology data grant and contribute to expanding our current knowledge on ecosystem functioning and the status of biodiversity. This call seeks grant proposals that will help EMODnet Biology to increase the amount of data made available and to cover existing geographical, temporal and/or taxonomic data gaps.

Recently, EMODnet Human Activities published a new blog on the website on wastewater.

As EMODnet marks 10 years since its initiation in 2009, experts from EMODnet and across the global ocean observation, monitoring and data communities were in Hawai’i for the decadal Conference OceanObs’19. In its third edition, OceanObs’19 has expanded to 1500 participants, with 2480 authors contributing to 128 Community White Papers, 600 posters and 60 exhibits from academia, industry and management, all at the Hawai’i Convention Center, Honolulu.

As Open Sea Lab sailed off from Ghent last Friday evening, talk had already turned to plans for Open Sea Lab III. Open Sea Lab has captured the imagination in a way that few events in the marine data world can.

What do the Ocean and hackers have in common? From the 4 -6 September, in the stimulating Zebrastraat venue in Ghent, STEM takes centre stage as international teams of scientists, programmers and communicators compete to create new ideas for goods and services built on Ocean data. Over 100 competitors from 18 countries registered to compete in the Open Sea Lab hackathon, but this is no ordinary hackathon!

Join the opening and closing sessions live at http://www.opensealab.eu/stream.