Document of dataset 3123

Dataset record

Type
Dataset
title in English
Marine Species of Britain, Ireland and Adjacent Seas
Acronym
MSBIAS
Description in English

Many applications require a list of species that are likely to be found in the marine waters around Britain and Ireland and the adjacent seas. This list can be used for this purpose and furthermore, if used widely will improve the ability to exchange species data between applications. The marine area covered by this list is shown below. The boundaries given in the map are recognized not to represent true boundaries of species distributions, nor infer ownership of any water body however the boundaries do allow operational use of a taxon list.

To download the full list, carry out a search and then click ‘download results’ in the result window.

This list started as a geographic subset of taxa from the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) that were originally identified through data holdings of the applications Marine Recorder and Unicorn and collated under the project ‘Pan-European Species directories Infrastructure (PESI)’. The MSBIAS list is now actively maintained through the UK MEDIN partnership to reflect those species present in the waters of the British Isles and adjacent seas.

Abstract in English

A list of species in the marine waters around Britain, Ireland and Adjacent Seas.

Contactpoint
Email
enquiries@medin.org.uk
License
https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html
bibliographicCitation
The UK Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (2026). Marine Species of Britain, Ireland and Adjacent Seas (MSBIAS): a checklist of species derived from the UNICORN and Marine Recorder applications. Accessed at https://www.marinespecies.org/msbias on yyyy-mm-dd

Temporal coverage

Temporal
Start date
1758-01-01

Geographical coverage

Spatial
Atlantic Ocean
Britain
Celtic Sea
English Channel
Ireland
Irish Sea
North Sea

Thesaurus terms

Keyword
Classification
Species
Taxonomy

Themes

theme
Biology
Biology > Ecology - biodiversity

Taxonomic terms

Taxon keywords
Animalia
Bacteria
Chromista
Fungi
Plantae
Protozoa

Ownerships

creator
Marine Environmental Data and Information Network
contributor
Marine Environmental Data and Information Network
contributor
Marine Environmental Data and Information Network
contributor
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee
contactPoint
Marine Environmental Data and Information Network

Dataset references

record
World Register of Marine Species

Special collections

part of special collection
Belgian marine datasets
Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning

Document metadata

date created
2012-07-17
date modified
2026-02-23