Bilat - An International Echogram Library

Monitoring the marine ecosystem through acoustic surveys is an established methodology used by IMR and similar institutions in other countries, for instance USA and Canada. This generates large amounts of data. There is a need for a system for storing and making available data in a consistent manner, both on a national and international level. We seek to initiate the process of finding partners in USA, Canada and/or Russia for creating an international echogram library based on the data from acoustic res earch surveys. This will make available a large collection of data to the international research community, and will provide a valuable basis for the improved understanding of marine ecosystems. Although the library will be general in its design, we wish to focus on data from the northern regions, since the countries share scientific, economic and environmental interests in this area. Collaboration on such a library should also help in further strengthening the relations and networks between researchers in these countries, with an increased probability of future research collaborations.