NARMS was initiated by Dr Mark Costello, formerly of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, currently at the University of Auckland Leigh Marine Laboratory, and Chair of the International Committee of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (http://www.iobis.org).

The North Atlantic Register consists of:

• the European register (maintained by the Flanders Marine Institute, Belgium)
• the NW Atlantic register (maintained by the Atlantic Reference Centre of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, Canada)

The European register is derived from the MarBEF (http://www.marbef.org) database Aphia. Aphia was developed for the European Register of Marine Species, or ERMS (http://www.marbef.org/data/erms.php), and now includes additional species lists, such as from the Indian Ocean and the Antarctic. Aphia, and the classification adopted, are described on the ERMS site.

The NW Atlantic register is a product of the Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC) of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre (http://www.huntsmanmarine.ca). Classification also follows Aphia. This register is an outgrowth of species lists of the ARC's Bay of Fundy Species Information (http://www.marinebiodiversity.ca/BayOfFundy/) and other web products, expanded to the Gulf of Maine, Canadian Atlantic, and finally NW North Atlantic species. These lists are posted temporarily at http://www.marinebiodiversity.ca/nonNARMS/index.jsp. ARC species lists are based on paper and electronic published, in-press, and unpublished literature, and the ARC museum database. Though some sources and species were undoubtedly missed, an attempt was made to make these lists comprehensive and authoritative species registers.

The NW Atlantic register spans diatoms to marine mammals in North American waters from Davis Strait to Cape Hatteras. The European register has many more species, including additional lower life forms, in the continental shelf seas of Europe from Greenland and north-west Russia to the Canaries and Azores, including the Mediterranean shelf and the Black Sea. Information on species and higher taxa, with options for geographic scope, can be accessed through the Search taxa tab. The Taxon browser tab leads to expandable classifications for NW and European registers in adjacent windows. Also on this page, clicking on "Taxa common to the NW Atlantic and Europe" will provide the desired list.

Project partners of NARMS are "Coordinating Research on the Northern Atlantic (CORONA)", "Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (MarBEF)", the "US National Science Foundation (NSF)" and the "6th Framework Programme, European Union (EU)".