The Working Group on the effects of extraction of marine sediments on the marine ecosystem (WGEXT) met in Rouen, France between 16 and 20 April 2012. Twelve par-ticipants from six ICES member countries attended the meeting. The objective of WGEXT is to provide a summary of data on marine sediment extrac-tion, marine resource and habitat mapping, changes to the legal regime, and research projects relevant to the assessment of environmental effects. A continued decline in amounts of extracted marine sediments across member coun-tries was identified by WGEXT although this was not the case for each country re-porting data. Similarly to previous years, no significant changes to the policies and procedures for managing marine sediment extraction were reported, with the excep-tion of the UK where the Marine and Coastal Access Act and its implications for ma-rine sediment extraction were discussed. Research into the impacts and effects of marine sediment extraction continued across member countries and a mix of na-tional/ regional focussed and multi-national programmes exist. Reports were reviewed from 12 (of 21) member countries. Although 11 member coun-tries did not provide reports, the available data is thought to provide a representative assessment of the overall total of material extracted from the member states.