We collected, formatted and standardized publicly available data from publications and databases for 24 living carbon pools in the North Sea and calculated the carbon stock of these pools per m². The living groups include: Phytoplankton, Protozooplankton, Bacteria, Mesozooplankton, Zooplankton, Phytobenthos, Zoobenthos, Cod, Haddock, Saithe, Whiting, Norway pout, Herring, Sandeel, Sprat, Other fish, Grey Seal, Harbour Seal, Minke Whale, White beaked dolphin, Harbour porpoise, Bottlenose dolphin and White-sided dolphin. Estimates are based on the standing stock biomass of the studied organism groups and represent spatial and temporal averages. Data, data sources, assumptions and calculations are described in detail to ensure reproducibility. The data collection was carried out in the course of the project Anthropogenic impacts on particulate organic carbon cycling in the North Sea (APOC) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).