In its strategic plan, ICES recognized its role in making scientific information accessible to the public as well as to fisheries and environmental assessment groups. During the 1999 Annual Science Conference, ICES requested the Oceanography Committee working groups to develop data products and summaries that could be routinely provided to the ICES community via the ICES website. The Working Group on Zooplankton Ecology (WGZE) has given priority to producing a summary report on zooplankton activities in the ICES Area based on the time-series obtained from national monitoring programmes. Since this conference, seven status reports have been assembled and published by the group.
