The 27 EU Member States have shores on two oceans and four seas. Their jurisdictional waters stretch from sub-tropical waters to areas approaching the North Pole. With the growing importance of maritime affairs on the political agenda of Member States, a new political geography has been created. Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero with Juan Carlos Rodríguez Mateos have developed an Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans to record this new geography in maps and graphs. In addition to territory-related issues, the Atlas includes a summary of all the main marine uses and activities from a European perspective. We publish the English version of the atlas with the kind permission of the author

The management and conservation of the world's oceans require synthesis of spatial data on the distribution and intensity of human activities and the overlap of their impacts on marine ecosystems. We developed an ecosystem-specific, multiscale spatial model to synthesize 17 global data sets of anthropogenic drivers of ecological change for 20 marine ecosystems. Our analysis indicates that no area is unaffected by human influence and that a large fraction (41%) is strongly affected by multiple drivers. However, large areas of relatively little human impact remain, particularly near the poles. The analytical process and resulting maps provide flexible tools for regional and global efforts to allocate conservation resources; to implement ecosystem-based management; and to inform marine spatial planning, education, and basic research.