Sustaining the World's Large Marine Ecosystems

Figure 1. Map of the 64 Large Marine Ecosystems of the world and their linked watersheds
(Sherman et al. 2004). The LMEs for which ecosystem based assessment and management
practices are being introduced include: the Agulhas Current and Somali Current, the Baltic Sea,
the Bay of Bengal, the Benguela Current, the Black Sea, the Canary Current, the Caribbean Sea,
the Guinea Current, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Thailand, the Indonesian Sea, the Humboldt
Current, the Mediterranean Sea, the South China Sea, the Sulu-Celebes Sea, and the Yellow
Sea LMEs.
The LMEs are natural regions of coastal ocean space encompassing waters from
river basins and estuaries to the seaward boundaries of continental shelves and
seaward margins of coastal currents and water masses. They are relatively large
regions characterized by distinct bathymetry, hydrography, productivity, and
trophically dependent populations (Duda and Sherman 2002)
Since 1995, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has provided substantial
funding to support country-driven projects for introducing multisectoral
ecosystem-based assessment and management practices for recovery and
sustainability of LME goods and services located around the margins of the
oceans. Primary productivity supporting marine populations in LMEs is higher
than in the open ocean (Figure 2). At present, 110 developing countries are
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