The eastern English Channel, the narrow channel of water separating northern
France and southeast England is an area of intense human use of the array of
resources concentrated into its relative small area. The vulnerability of
living resources and their habitats brought together French and British
maritime experts within a common project (called CHARM): to create an atlas
of marine resource habitats in the eastern English Channel so as to provide
planners and decision-makers with the necessary information to help managing
the use of its living and non-living resources. This multidisciplinary and
richly illustrated atlas provides abundant information on the legal
framework and physical environment; benthic invertebrates, fish and their
habitats; fishing activities; and a first attempt at developing a trophic
network model (using ECOPATH software) and a marine conservation planning
exercise (using MARXAN software, at a spatial resolution of 25 km$^{2})$.
Although most of the data used were collected elsewhere, some were collected
especially for the project. Similarly, most of the analyses performed on the
data where entirely original for this geographical area. The CHARM atlas has
significantly improved the knowledge about the eastern Channel while
contributing to the recognition that such holistic or multidisciplinary
approaches to exploited marine systems are necessary to efficiently and
durably manage their resources use.