Sustaining the World's Large Marine Ecosystems

The 5-module methodology is applicable in all climate zones and in all regions. It
provides a framework for assessing the variability of Large Marine Ecosystems
and offers a solid framework for effective management action by the countries
adjacent to an LME to recover and sustain the use of marine goods and services.
The approach has developed suites of indicators for each of the 5 modules
(Figure 2).
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Figure 2. LME modules as suites of ecosystem indicators (Sherman et al. 2005)
Outreach Focus for LME-based Assessment and Management Practices
The LME movement (Duda, this volume; Sherman et al. 2005) can be described
as having three phases. The early phase in the decade of the mid 1980s to the
mid 1990s was focused on framing the LME approach through a series of
symposia and published reports and volumes. The symposia were based on the
scientific, economic, and legal dimensions of LMEs and were convened at four
annual meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) beginning in 1984, and an international LME symposium held in Monaco
in 1990. The symposia were followed by four peer-reviewed LME volumes
published by the AAAS in 1986, 1989, 1990 and 1993. Other peer reviewed
publications followed later, published by Blackwell Science and Elsevier Science.
A complete listing of 14 published LME volumes, along with chapter headings
and authors, is given in the Annex.