DATA DISCLAIMER

1. IMPORTANT 

Thank you for downloading data from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). 

By downloading data from the ICES website and sub-domains [ices.dk] you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of use as described in this document and any documents referred to in this text.

Please read this before using the downloaded data, as this file contains specific information about the use of the data provided, limitations, and known issues. This file contains contact information regarding the origins of the data (where supplied) as well as how to cite these data in a publication or a data product. 

This file is the counterpart to the data download file Unaggregated trawl and biological information_2025-02-14 12_03_11
and was downloaded on 14/02/2025 12:03:11 by IP 193.190.112.194 . 

Note that data download is built on the following national submissions:
2012:BE,DE,GB,NL
2013:BE,DE,GB,NL
2014:BE,DE,GB,NL
2015:BE,DE,GB,NL
2016:BE,DE,GB,NL
2017:BE,DE,GB,NL
2018:BE,DE,GB,NL
2019:BE,DE,GB,NL
2020:BE,DE,GB,NL
2021:BE,DE,GB,NL
2022:BE,DE,GB,NL
2023:BE,DE,GB,NL


2. CONTACT INFORMATION

For feedback or queries about this data download, contact ICES at:

Email: DatrasAdministration@ices.dk 
Tel.:	+45 3338 6700

Find more information at:
Web:	https://www.ices.dk/data/Pages/default.aspx


3. DATA SPECIFIC INFORMATION

Data from the trawl survey database are freely available for downloading.

Whilst the data have been extensively checked by both the supplying institutes
and ICES there are inherent flaws in gathering the information. 
 For example:

* In spite of the fact that now all bottom trawl surveys are in the same database
   and often at least partially overlap in time period or area covered, there are
   differences between the surveys that do not allow the combination of data from 
   different surveys in one analysis unless this point is specifically addressed. 

* There is no guarantee that the gears deployed adequately sample all species 
   (e.g. catchability of flatfish in beam trawls is markedly higher than that of GOV).
   It should be realized that each survey gear catches a gear-dependent subset 
   of the fish community.

* A common property of all surveys is that over time species determination skills
   improve. As a result, new taxa will emerge in the dataset that were previously 
   reported as part of another closely-related taxon.

* Over time the sampling procedures, gear characteristics, timing of the survey 
   or the area covered may have changed thereby influencing the catches. Expert 
   advice recommendations are given in order to prevent bias in the analyses using
   DATRAS catch data, caused by such factors.

*  Please check on the submission status https://datras.ices.dk/Data_products/Submission_Status.aspx
   before finalizing your report.

*  Data product 'Litter Assessment Output' provides data mapping to Exclusive Economic Zones in the 
   field 'EEZ'. Layer with EEZ boundaries is from the http://www.marineregions.org/, 
   and ICES does not bear any responsibility for EEZ definitions. 
   When using this data product, please include acknowledgement of the EEZ data source as in the section below.  

Thus users are urged to treat the data with caution. If the user has any queries
on the validity of the data or the conclusions to be drawn they should contact 
 either the ICES Secretariat or the Chairs of the relevant Working Group 
 (IBTS, BITS or BEAM)


4. TERMS OF USE: DATA 
ICES makes data available to users in an open, timely and easy way, but ICES remains dependent on data contributions.
Data provided from the website are classified as 'Public'.
Public data are covered by the Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) open access data license. 
 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 
Please note:
- All data products are by default publicly available, including those derived from restricted data.
- Correct and appropriate data interpretation is solely the responsibility of data users.
- Data Users must not expressly or otherwise imply ICES substantiation or endorsement of their work, results, conclusions and/or recommendations.
- Data sources must be duly acknowledged.
- Data Users must respect any and all restrictions on the use or reproduction of data such as restrictions on use for commercial purposes.
- Data Users are obliged to inform ICES of any suspected problems in the data.
- Data Users are encouraged to inform ICES of possible sources of other relevant data.
The full ICES data policy and terms of use can be viewed at:
https://ices.dk/data/guidelines-and-policy/pages/ices-data-policy.aspx.
Data held at ICES are used for various assessments and working group purposes. The data guidelines and procedures for these can be viewed at:
https://ices.dk/data/guidelines-and-policy/pages/default.aspx

5. TERMS OF USE: SOFTWARE 
Software is available for use from the ICES website that is provided as an aid for data users to work with, analyse and convert data: 
https://ices.dk/data/tools/Pages/Software.aspx
The downloading and use of any software from https://www.ices.dk/ grants you only a limited, nonexclusive license for use solely by you for your own personal use and not for republication, distribution, assignment, sublicense, sale or other use. No part of any content, coding or documentation may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system without the express permission of ICES or the third party that provided the software on https://www.ices.dk/
The downloading and installation of software from https://www.ices.dk/ is at your own risk. ICES undertakes every effort to ensure software is compatible with the latest windows operating system, or other systems as defined in specific readme or a software documentation file. ICES accepts no responsibility for the correct functioning and operation of software downloaded from https://www.ices.dk/, nor any incidental, special or consequential damages associated with downloading and installing software provided by ICES.


6. DATA CITATION
Data sources should be acknowledged by a citation. Detailed information and examples of citations can be found in ICES Data Policy: https://ices.dk/data/guidelines-and-policy/Pages/ICES-data-policy.aspx.
A minimum requirement citation would include the following:
"ICES BTS (Beam Trawl Survey) dataset .ICES, Copenhagen"  

Please acknowledge the following data sources when using the data:
Source : BTS (Beam Trawl Survey)

For Litter Assessment Output, please acknowledge the EEZ data source as follows:

VLIZ (2014). Union of the ESRI Country shapefile and the Exclusive Economic Zones (version 9). 
Available online at http://www.marineregions.org/. Consulted on 2017-02-15.

7. METADATA
Further details about the dataset and related services can be found at the metadata catalogue.
ICES Datasets: https://gis.ices.dk/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/search?query_string={"groupOwner":{"10":true},"resourceType":{"dataset":true}}
ICES Services: https://gis.ices.dk/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/search?query_string={"groupOwner":{"10":true},"resourceType":{"service":true}}
