indicator for regional-scale assessment of pelagic habitats for policy 1

1Center for Marine and Conservation Policy Research, Plymouth University, Drake Circus, Plymouth, UK PL4 8AA 5 2Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, UK PL1 3DH 6 3National Museum of Natural History, CRESCO, 38 Rue du Port Blanc, F-35800 Dinard, France 7 4Environment Agency, Kingfisher House, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, UK PE25ZR 8 5Marine Scotland Science, 375 Victoria Road, Aberdeen, UK AB11 9DB 9 6National Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton, UK SO14 3ZH 10 7Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, UK NR33 0HT 11 8Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), Oban, Scotland, UK PA37 1QA 12 9The Marine Biological Association, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, UK PL1 2PB 13 10Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, 18a Newforge Lane, Belfast, UK BT9 5PX 14 11Trinity College Dublin, School of Histories and Humanities, Centre for Environmental Humanities, Dublin 2, Ireland 15 16 *Corresponding author: Abigail.McQuatters-Gollop@plymouth.ac.uk 17 **Co-authors are listed in alphabetical order 18 19 Abstract 20