Sustaining the World's Large Marine Ecosystems

Indicators of Changing States of
Large Marine Ecosystems
Kenneth Sherman*, Igor Belkin**, Sybil Seitzinger***, Porter Hoagland ****,
Di Jin****, Marie-Christine Aquarone*, and Sally Adams*
The Large Marine Ecosystem Approach
A global movement that applies an ecosystem based management (EBM)
approach to recover marine goods and services is presently being practiced in a
growing number of developing countries. It is known as the Large Marine
Ecosystem (LME) approach, and it is being endorsed and supported by
governments world-wide, as well as by financial institutions including the Global
Environment Facility, the World Bank and by a broad constituency in the scientific
community.
While we concur with the movement toward an ecosystem-based approach to the
management of marine fisheries (Pikitch et al. 2004), it is important to recognize
that a broader, place-based approach to marine ecosystem assessment and
management, focused on clearly delineated ecosystem units, is needed. In
2005, Large Marine Ecosystems were recognized in a scientific consensus
statement by over 200 marine scientists, academics and policy experts as
important global areas for practicing ecosystem-based research, assessment and
management of ocean goods and services (McLeod et al. 2005). A movement is
presently under way to assess and manage a growing number of the world’s
LMEs, with the support of financial grants, and donor and UN partnerships, in
nations of Africa, Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe. It is within the
boundaries of 64 LMEs (Figure 1), that 80% of mean annual marine fisheries
yields is produced, overfishing is most severe, marine pollution is concentrated,
and eutrophication and anoxia are increasing.
*National Marine Fisheries Service, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA
** Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI USA
***IGBP Secretariat, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sweden
****Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Woods Hole, MA
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