Representatives from the oil and gas industry, environmental– and fisheries directorates as well as research institutes are gathered in Oslo for the annual Forum for offshore environmental monitoring, a meeting organized by Norwegian Oil and Gas and the Norwegian Environment Agency. A close cooperation and an open dialogue between SponGES, industry and management bodies is of utmost importance to reach the main aim of SponGES – to develop an integrated ecosystem-based concept for the preservation and sustainable exploitation of vulnerable deep-sea sponge ecosystems of the North Atlantic. This forum for sure gives us a good push in the right direction!