For many years researchers and resource managers working in the marine realm have faced challenges in obtaining and integrating data on important ecological resources and the benthic environment in general. This issue is a challenge not only within NOAA but also for regional and inter-agency partners. As such, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has provided funding for a data distribution mechanism modeled on the NOAA BioMapper to serve the region and potentially beyond the Great Lakes region in the future. In response, an inter-line office team has taken early steps to understand the data access challenges faced by the benthic data user and producer communities and develop solutions to improve coordinated access to NOAA benthic data through a next generation BioMapper project. This effort will align with NOAA data dissemination strategies and policies and will leverage commercial off-the-shelf software solutions. The goals are to advance access, discovery, and use of benthic habitat data for a wide range of applications, from conservation to marine planning and decision making. This effort supports NOAA’s mission and priorities like the America the Beautiful initiative.