NOAA’s LARGE MARINE ECOSYSTEMS PROGRAM

August 27, 2003 — Countries around the globe are concerned about the degraded condition of their coastal ecosystems from excessive fishing efforts, habitat alteration, eutrophication, pollution, aerosol contaminants and emerging diseases.

In 1992, a special United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was convened in Brazil to discuss these global issues. Leaders from 170 nations recognized the importance of their coastal waters and adopted an “Oceans Declaration” whereby they would work to prevent, reduce and control degradation of the marine environment, develop and increase the potential of the marine environment to meet human nutritional needs and promote the integrated management and sustainable development of coastal areas and nearshore marine resources.

Following UNCED, developing countries approached the Global Environment Facility, located in Washington, D.C., seeking financial assistance for improving their coastal ecosystems and their living marine resources. NOAA has joined with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and several other U.N. agencies, to collaborate in an action program to assist developing countries in planning and implementing an ecosystem–based strategy that is focused on Large Marine Ecosystems as the principal assessment and management unit for coastal ocean resources. NOAA contributes scientific and technical assistance and expertise to aid developing countries in reaching the objectives of the Oceans Declaration. The LME Program Office is located at the NOAA Fisheries Narragansett Laboratory in Narragansett, R.I. The Office works closely in coordinating program activities with other NOAA Marine Fisheries laboratories, marine specialists in the other NOAA Line Offices and with the NOAA Office of International Affairs.

With the introduction of the movement toward “ecosystem-based management,” there is a shift evolving from short-term, single species management to large scale, multi-species, and multi-sectoral, long-term management of the world’s LME. LMEs are regions of ocean space encompassing coastal areas from river basins and estuaries to the seaward boundaries of continental shelves, enclosed and semi-enclosed seas and the outer boundaries of major current systems. Presently 64 LMEs have been delineated around the margins of the world’s oceans (Click image to the right for larger view of the 64 LMEs). They are large bodies of water equal to or greater than 200,000 km² that are characterized by distinct bathymetry, hydrography, productivity and trophic interactions. Annually, LMEs produce 95 percent of the world’s fish catch and contain most of the oceans degraded habitats and coastal pollution, thus making them the focal point of global efforts to reduce the degradation of marine resources and coastal environments from pollution, habitat loss and overfishing. The LME strategy is a global effort for improved assessment and management of coastal waters worldwide. NOAA supports this new management approach to improve the long term sustainability of LMEs and their resources, that can best be characterized as a shift away from traditional management of commodities to new management practices that are focused on ensuring the sustainability of the productive potential for ecosystem goods and services.

With the implementation of an ecosystem-based management approach, an important corner has been turned toward a focused global effort to improve and sustain coastal resources. In the United States, we now see fish stocks recovering, pollution and eutrophication-related conditions improving and coastal habitats being restored. An LME restoration and sustainability construct that is based on a five-module assessment and management strategy using long-term achievable objectives are being developed and implemented through GEF supported projects in 126 countries to improve and sustain coastal ecosystems. The modules are science based and country driven, and have been developed for assessing and analyzing ecosystem wide changes in productivity, fish and fisheries, pollution and ecosystem health, socioeconomics and governance practices (Click image to the right for larger view of the five-module assessment and management strategy).

For many of the LMEs, studies of the principal driving forces affecting abundance and distribution of fish stocks have been identified and attributed to excessive exploitation, climatic regime shifts or coastal pollution. These indicators have been reported from published case studies of LMEs as primary, secondary or tertiary driving forces causing perturbations within the LME. For example, in the Yellow Sea LME, the primary driving force affecting biomass yields are excessive fishing effort. In upwelling regions such as the Humboldt Current LME, the changes in upwelling strength are primarily responsible, and in semi-enclosed seas — such as the Black Sea LME — the principal driver of change is significant pollution and eutrophication.

The GEF-supported LME projects are contributing to the realization of major targets adopted by senior government officials during the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September of 2002. Specifically, ongoing LME project activities address two of the summit targets: 1) introduction of ecosystem based assessment and management practices to all member countries by 2010; and 2) the recovery of depleted global fish stocks to maximum sustainable yield levels by 2015. These are major milestones to strive for, and with the implementation of the LME strategy, developing countries are working earnestly to make them happen. The GEF-supported LME projects constitute a network of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe that are working together to better understand transboundary marine issues such as pollution, eutrophication and overfishing, and to then develop country-driven policies, reforms and investments needed to take appropriate management action focused on improving the long term sustainability of marine resources and their environments. The LME Network is supported by $200 million in funding to developing nations from the GEF, other donors and national governments. A list of participating nations is given in Table 1 below.

To reach the goals set forth at the WSSD, NOAA and its partner U.N. agencies (FAO, UNDP, UNEP, UNIDO, IOC) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) continue to introduce ecosystem assessment and management practices to developing countries in support of the recovery of depleted fish stocks, preservation of food security and sustainable productivity; reduction of pollution and eutrophication of coastal waters; and restoration of degraded habitats including wetlands, coral reefs and mangroves. Effective NOAA management actions in collaboration with appropriate fishery management councils have resulted in significant improvements in fish stock recovery within the boundaries of LMEs in the United States. An example of the direct relationship between the reduction in fishing pressure (exploitation rate) and recovery increases in Parent-Stock (spawning stock biomass) and young fish production (recruitment) can be observed in Figure below right. (Click image to the right for larger view of the graph of the U.S. Northeast Shelf LME).

Similar results can be obtained in other LME’s where overfishing is a major concern. NOAA is providing scientific and technical assistance to the GEF/LME projects as an outreach contribution to developing countries seeking to achieve the summit targets for fish stock recoveries and ecosystem-based management practices. Marine specialists from NOAA are assisting developing countries in the use of advanced scientific and technological measuring techniques, new sensors for assessing levels of primary productivity, nutrient loading and biologically important oceanographic features using satellite remote sensing linked to in situ ecosystem monitoring techniques and in introducing the use of ships of opportunity. See image below right for towing undulating plankton samplers and oceanographic sensors, and providing training in adaptive management, socioeconomics and governance practices.

Partnerships have been developed in this effort between NOAA and leading marine academic and private institutions, including the University of Rhode Island, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the University of British Columbia Fisheries Center.

A North/South Technology transfer is taking place where expertise from other partnering countries (e.g., Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom) is shared with developing countries to provide capacity building, transfer of scientific hardware, software and expertise. Training is provided as resources become available to assist in the education of local communities on appropriate measures for recovering depleted fish stocks, restoring degraded habitats and reducing coastal pollution.

For additional outreach activities, an LME Web site has been established through collaboration with the University of Rhode Island Environmental Data Center to provide users a way to access LME information. This information is also available through published LME case studies, scientific and economic reports and in volumes published during the past 15 years. The LME Web site provides access to a broad scope of information — whether it is generic background information on each of the 64 LMEs or more specific information on the five ecosystem assessment modules. Maps and data are available in a Geographic Information System format and can be easily downloaded for inclusion in reports, presentations and decision-making purposes. All the LME volumes are listed and are described in detail. This centralized LME Web site contains information that is now accessible by the LME projects through the GEF/LME Project Network.

Using the latest Internet Map Server technologies, NOAA is assisting participating countries in making available to the projects, information that has been collected from cruises, repositories and other data sources — both long and short term — that can be synthesized, analyzed and available for supporting assessment and management activities.

NOAA has joined with U.N. agencies (UNEP, UNDP UNIDO), the World Bank, the GEF, IUCN and various ministries of developing countries in a global effort to ensure future sustainability of coastal goods and services. A common understanding is now emerging that the degradation of the world’s large marine ecosystems needs to be halted and steps taken towards — Recovery of depleted fish stocks, Restoration of degraded habitats and Reduction of coastal pollution — the 3 Rs. This effort to turn the corner towards ecosystem recovery is not just a problem of developing countries. The more economically advanced countries are now accelerating efforts to protect, conserve and sustain LME waters in a global effort to reverse degradation of marine resources and habitats of coastal communities.

Relevant Web Sites

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992)

THE RIO DECLARATION ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (1992)

Global Environment Facility

International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission

Large Marine Ecosystems of the World

NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center Narragansett Laboratory

NOAA's Office of International Affairs

World Summit on Sustainable Development

The Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) of the University of Rhode Island

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

University of British Columbia Fisheries Center.

University of Rhode Island Environmental Data Center

United Nations Environment Programme

United Nations Development Programme

United Nations Industrial Development Organization

NOAA's Participation in WSSD — Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs)

Media Contact:
Gordon Helm or Susan Buchanan, NOAA Fisheries, (301) 713-2370