​Knowledge of marine and coastal datasets tends to be fragmented and/or difficult to access for the non-expert or ad hoc data user. To address this lack of information, this document provides an overview of global marine and coastal datasets of biodiversity importance, and also includes some datasets of regional interest. This non-exhaustive review has resulted in the identification of 128 datasets, databases, and data portals. Detailed standardised metadata are presented for 69 of these reviewed datasets. The various challenges, gaps and limitations that can be presented by coastal and marine data are also discussed. A set of four annexes provides a wealth of information, including background factsheets on topic areas (Annex 1), a preliminary inventory of 128 global and regional datasets (Annex 2) and dataset-specific metadata on 69 of these (Annex 3). Annex 4 contains a sample of 10 marine mammal spatial distribution maps, as modelled using the AquaMaps approach.