Identifying Priority Conservation Areas from Baja California to the Bering Sea

Conservation in the sea is similar to conservation on land; protecting places and species requires identification of appropriate targets for conservation. Many species range across international boundaries suggesting that effective conservation needs to be implemented at both the international level as well as the local level. Here we summarize a tri-national effort between Canada, Mexico and the United States, facilitated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America (CEC) and Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI), to identify priority conservation areas for the Baja California to Bering Sea region. Criteria for selecting ecological significant regions were based on protecting biodiversity at the North American scale. Priority conservation areas were identified based on current human threats and opportunities for international collaboration.