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11 th International Symposium for GIS and Computer Cartography for Coastal Zones Management(NRC) initiated a Research Data Canada Working Group (rds-sdr.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca) to address the challengesand issues surrounding the access and preservation of data arising from Canadian research. This multi-disciplinarygroup of universities, institutes, libraries, granting agencies, and individual researchers are bonded by a sharedrecognition of the pressing need to deal with Canadian research data management issues. The most basic expectationbeing that public research funding should be conditional on resulting data being made openly available in a timelyfashion. Routine CHONe and OTN data submissions to OBIS would clearly fulfill such a requirement. Underlyingthis would be implementation of best practices, whereby these data are inventoried, archived, and described so thatthe datasets are discoverable, accessible and reusable.Figure 1. Locations of samples archived in OBIS. Orange symbols show the location of samples submitted by OBIS Canada(left) and green symbols show the location of all samples that fall with the Canadian area of interest as defined by DFO IntegratedScience Data Management for oceanographic data (35–90 o N and 40–180 o W) from all OBIS sources (right).Why collaborate with OBIS and OBIS Canada?In 2011, in response to a paper discussing the fact that Canadian biodiversity data is not easily accessible (Hydeet al., 2010) a network of Canadian biological data holders was set up with the objective to mobilize Canadian data.Members of this network work together so it does not matter which route one takes to publish the data – the objectiveis to get it published! In our opinion though, publishing marine data through OBIS Canada will result in a betterquality controlled product.Why should programs such as OTN or CHONe collaborate with OBIS and not some other major Canadian initiativesuch as the Canadian Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) node (CBIF,www.cbif.gc.ca/home_e.php) or Canadensys (www.canadensys.net)? According to their web page CBIF ‘exploresnew ways to improve the organization, exchange, correlation, and availability of primary data on biological speciesof interest to Canadians’ – they do not assist with the publishing of the data, nor with quality control of the data.According to the Canadensys web page their mandate is ‘to unlock the specimen information held by Canadianuniversity-based biological collections and share this via a network of distributed databases’. OBIS Canada’s expertiseis with marine datasets whereas the focus of the other Canadian initiatives is more terrestrial.Data owners could publish their own data directly to GBIF but why re-invent the wheel – take advantage of existingCanadian expertise and as a community collaborate to achieve the best possible outcome for Canadian marineresearchers.OBIS Canada assists data management teams, such as CHONe and OTN, to utilize available public tools tostandardize their data records as part of their own QC procedures. The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)(Appletans et al., 2012) and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) (www.itis.gov/) are recognizedtaxonomic name standards. WoRMS is recognized as the best source for marine species and their taxon match tool(www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=match) should be included in QC procedures. The authoritative source ofgeographical place names is the Canadian Geographical Names Data Base (CGNDB, www4.nrcan.gc.ca/earthsciences/geography-boundary/geographical-name/search/name.php)and MarineRegions.org(www.marineregions.org) for marine regions.28