Introduction

The Census of Marine Life is a growing global network of researchers in more than 70 nations engaged in a ten-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans — past, present, and future.

What lived in the oceans?
What lives in the oceans?
What will live in the oceans?

These fundamental questions guide the work of more than seventeen projects around the globe that are part of the international Census of Marine Life. Our unique contribution to the larger COML effort will be to demonstrate how to assemble the partnerships, data systems, scientific knowledge and public support necessary to construct a framework toward ecosystem-based management of a regional and bi-national resource.

The Gulf of Maine Census of Marine Life Program is one of the 14 field projects of the Census of Marine Life (CoML), and was selected as the ecosystem pilot study for CoML. The goal of this program is to gain enough knowledge to enable ecosystem-based management in a large marine environment. The program will advance knowledge of biodiversity patterns and ecological processes over a range of habitats and species, from microscopic plankton to whales. This growing knowledge base will be synthesized and used as a foundation for ecosystem approaches to management in the Gulf of Maine.

The Gulf of Maine area is bordered by the New England coastline of the United States (Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts) and the eastern maritime provinces of Canada (New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) to its north and west. This program focuses on marine life in the Gulf of Maine and surrounding area, including the Scotian Shelf, Georges Bank, adjacent slope sea, and the western New England Seamounts.

The Gulf of Maine research program seeks to coordinate, advance and synthesize scientific knowledge throughout the region. The Gulf of Maine team and our partners will utilize and demonstrate the latest research technologies to perform an integrated study aimed at understanding both the biogeography of the Gulf and the processes affecting it. A broad suite of instruments and sensors will collect data on the physical and biological characteristics of the Gulf of Maine.

The Gulf of Maine Ocean Data Partnership will work with existing efforts in this well-studied region, such as the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System and others working toward a better understanding of the Gulf and use of this information. The Gulf of Maine program has created a portal for many existing databases to create an electronic Dynamic Atlas of the Gulf of Maine. As part of the international COML effort, the Gulf of Maine program is merging its databases with the global Ocean Biogeographic Information System.

As the program team works with ongoing efforts in the Gulf to synthesize what is known, it will identify gaps on which to focus further study. It will continue field studies, as well as recommend a system of ongoing monitoring.

By their nature, not all things about ecosystems or their futures are knowable. Uncertainty is inherent in ecosystems. With increased knowledge, however, we can narrow uncertainty and learn how to adapt to it. With a sustained and coordinated effort, we can gain enough knowledge to enable operational ecosystem-based management within a decade.