Use constraints: Data can be used freely given that the source is cited (following creative commons license CC-BY). The source should be cited as: “HELCOM HOLAS 3 Dataset (2023)"

The raw data on which this assessment is based, are stored in national databases. Each country has its own routines for quality assurance of the stored data. From 2017, each country calculates indicator values for their monitoring locations from the raw data from fish monitoring. The indicator data and values are then during the first half of the year uploaded to the HELCOM database for coastal fish core indicators, COOL (HELCOM Coastal Fish database) as hosted by the HELCOM secretariat. ( http://bio.helcom.fi/coastalfish)

Indicator data for status assessments are extracted from the COOL database, and the assessment undertaken by the lead country (Sweden) according to the assessment protocol.

The level of confidence of the assessment differs across areas and regions as a result of differences in monitoring methodology as well as in some countries poor temporal and spatial coverage of monitoring due to poor financial support for monitoring.

This indicator uses two different approaches for evaluating whether Good Environmental Status is achieved. The approach used depends on the availability of data. If there is sufficient data (at least 15 years’ time series), then the baseline approach is used. If the criteria for applying the baseline approach are not fulfilled, then the trend based approach is used.