CHARM : Atlas des Habitats des Ressources Marines de la Manche Orientale

INTRODUCTION: The Dover Strait (Figure 1) connects the North Sea to the English Channel. Here, northern France and South-East England are at their closest. This narrow corridor, one of the world's busiest straits for maritime shipping, is a key economic area for numerous activities, such as leisure and tourism, international ports and shipping, plus the exploitation of living or abiotic marine resources. This area is a significant resource for fisheries because many commercial fish species are abundant there, but also because of the presence of nursery and spawning areas and migratory routes linked to specific environmental characteristics. The vulnerability of these resources, which are subjected to strong anthropogenic pressures, has brought together French and British maritime experts within a common project: to create an atlas of marine resource habitats in the Eastern English Channel. The first phase of the project focuses on the Dover Strait. Why the need for an atlas of marine resource habitats? Because the primary aim of the atlas is to act as a contemporary reference source for the Dover Strait marine environment and provide decision-makers with the necessary information to help in the management of marine living resources. Furthermore, it is essential that France and the United Kingdom have a common vision for the protection of ecosystems quality and for the utilisation of the marine resources shared by these two countries, which are presently suffering the consequences of the decline in the abundance of certain species. Sensible management, assisted by information systems and tools to help decision-making, is the key for the sustainable use of these resources. Finally, the popularisation of these approaches amongst the wider public is also an important factor in increasing the awareness of stakeholders and other users, and to involve them in the preservation and protection of a natural heritage, for a sustainable management of these resources. Why habitats? Because a habitat is an area where the environmental conditions are suitable for an organism, a population or a community to survive and live in a spontaneous state. As a result, any alteration of the environment may have disastrous consequences. Habitats and living marine resources in this geographical area are essential from the point of view of the environment because they contribute to the functioning of this unique ecosystem. This atlas is first of all an assessment of available and usable data for this approach. It presents a descriptive analysis of the environment of the Dover Strait and its resources (benthic assemblages, marine fish species: larvae, juvenile and adult). Also presented are the methods used to analyse these data and to map the suitable habitat for 16 marine fish species.