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Published in Fall 2003
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Protecting marine resources in the Pacific Northeast
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The following information is adapted from an upcoming book by the CEC, Marine Spaces: North America's Marine Ecological Regions.
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| The Gulf of Alaska/Fjordlands Pacific Marine Ecoregion is just one example of these efforts, whose nine PCAs are presented here in the following synopsis and map. Click map to view it.
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The Pacific coast of North America is home to blue whales, leatherback sea turtles, bluefin tuna and Pacific gray whales that migrate thousands of kilometers through marine environments and jurisdictional borders without hesitation. Their journeys show us how the marine ecosystems of Canada, Mexico and the United States are intricately linked, and action or inaction in one country will affect this shared biodiversity throughout the region.
Although many conservation efforts and sustainable development initiatives are in effect at different scales along the West Coast, they generally work independently of each other. Unless these efforts are coordinated, populations and species will continue to dwindle and ecosystem integrity will continue to be at risk.
The North American Marine Protected Areas Network of the CEC represents one cross-border initiative to conserve our marine ecosystems. In collaboration with several organizations and agencies, notably the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, the CEC identified Priority Conservation Areas (PCA) along North America's West Coast to help facilitate trinational, marine conservation efforts.
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| © Patricio Robles Gil / Sierra Madre |
Regional Overview
The Gulf of Alaska/Fjordlands region is one of the world's most highly productive marine ecosystems. Upwelling in the center of the Alaska gyre brings nutrients, phytoplankton and zooplankton production onto the shelf along the edge of the Gulf. The region is home to about 3,800 species of invertebrates, representing 3.5 percent of all known marine invertebrates in the world.
The large invertebrate populations provide rich food sources for the over 300 species of fishes living in the region. The Pacific herring is the most abundant, however, like salmon stocks, they have been over fished over time.
The Gulf of Alaska region is significant to large proportions of the world's populations of Cassin's auklet and ancient murrelets. The region also provides feeding and resting areas for large numbers of migrating and wintering ducks, geese, swans, loons, and shorebirds.
Marine mammals common to the region include gray, minke, humpback and killer whales, harbor and Dall's porpoises, Pacific white-sided dolphins and sea otters. Although the sea otter's range is vast, the greater part of the world's population can be found in Alaskan waters. Steller sea lions have major rookery areas in the Alexander Archipelago and the Alaska Peninsula.
Freshwater discharges from Canadian and US rivers carry vast amounts of nutrients to this ocean area, stimulating the growth of phytoplankton, algae, and other marine plant life. Along the water's edge, large beds of eelgrass in the coastal salt marshes and mudflats serve as important spawning sites for Pacific herring schools. In the subtidal zones lie vast forests of giant and bull kelp. Recent explortion of seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska has revealed abundant faunas of deep-sea corals, creating unique deepwater ecosystems.
Human Activities
The region ranges from the coastal urban areas of southeast British Colombia, with one of the fastest growing human populations in North America, to the very sparsely populated areas of Alaska. Throughout the region, fishing, shipping, tourism and marine recreation are the main human activities. But with these lucrative and popular activities, have come pollution from cruise and industrial ship traffic, urban run-off, destruction of shoreline and bottom habitat, overfishing, and industrial pollution-the main sources of ecological stress to the region.
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| © Patricio Robles Gil / Sierra Madre |
Development in major estuaries and deltas has altered and reduced critical habitats, while overfishing has seriously affected a variety of fish and shellfish populations and other organisms that depend on them. One of the more recent activities to the area is aquaculture. In this region, as in the Atlantic, the consequences of the industry are still being debated, but it is altering the marine ecosystem.
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