DisMAP - Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal Home Page

Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal

Launch Portal

The NOAA Fisheries Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal (DisMAP) provides easy access to information to track and understand distributions of marine species in the U.S. Marine Ecosystems. Launch the portal to explore, visualize and interact with information on marine species distributions.

WHAT IS DISMAP?

The Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal (DisMAP) is a user friendly and interactive website designed to provide visualization and analysis tools to better track, understand, and respond to shifting distributions of marine species. It allows users to examine changes in species distributions over time by looking at both location maps as well as graphs of key indicators of a species distribution (changes over time in latitude, depth, range limits). This effort grew out of and builds off of the OceanAdapt website, a successful collaboration between the Rutgers University (Pinsky Lab), NOAA Fisheries and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. DisMAP will continue to provide information previously provided by OceanAdapt, and expand to incorporate additional data types, model outputs and functionality over time.

OUR MISSION

Improve ease of access to and exploration of species distribution data
Support decision-makers to use this spatial data for insight and informing decisions, such as fishing closed areas, marine protected areas, allocations, stock boundaries, survey designs
Foster sharing and exchange of practices and ideas among scientists working on species distribution modeling.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

The geographic or spatial extent, over which a species is found to occur, is its distribution. Understanding how species are distributed in space and time and the factors that drive spatial patterns in distribution and abundance are central questions in ecology and important for species conservation and management.

Additionally, a major impact of changing climate and ocean conditions is the large-scale shifts in distributions of many marine species as they attempt to remain within their preferred environmental conditions (e.g., temperature). These shifts in distribution pose a central challenge to fisheries managers as they can and already are affecting commercial and recreational fisheries, and the economies of communities that rely on them. Easy access to information on current and projected future fish distributions can help fisheries managers and the fishing industry better plan for and respond to changes.

Core Features

Single species distributions

Explore visual and numerical representation of several key metrics that define a species range and distribution of individual species over time.

Regional Summaries

Explore how communities have changed at the regional level (e.g. species richness) over time

LATEST NEWS & STORIES

May 10, 2023

Visualizing Shifts of Pollock, Cod in the Northern Bering Sea in Response to Warming Waters

This spring DisMAP is getting three major updates including additional years of survey data, new filtering features, and data from a new region—the Northern Bering Sea. (...more)

DisMAP Dives Deeper: Distribution Products for Hawaiʻi’s Deep 7 Now Available

December 22, 2022

Diving Deeper with DisMAP: Hawaiʻi’s Deep 7 Bottomfish Now Available in NOAA’s Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal

The team behind the Distribution Mapping and Analysis Portal (DisMAP) has rolled out the first upgrades to the tool since its launch in spring 2022, with additional cutting-edge updates slated for 2023. (...more)

April 19, 2022

Dive into the issues: Visualizing Climate Change with Melissa Karp

Explore how NOAA Fisheries’ new, interactive fisheries data portal shows how specific marine species’ locations have shifted over time, which may be in response to climate change. This tool can help us better understand and respond to these changes. (...more)

April 19, 2022

NOAA showcases new mapping tool for marine species

NOAA Fisheries launched a new tool to better track the location and movement of marine fish in U.S. waters. The data reveals that the ranges of many marine species are shifting, expanding and contracting in response to changing ocean conditions. (...more)