Overview of GOM

"The Gulf of Maine [GOM] comprises 36,000 square miles of ocean along 7,500 miles of coastline, from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia. The Gulf’s frigid, nutrient-rich waters make it one of the most productive marine habitats in the North Atlantic, inhabited by a wealth of marine species, including 176 species of fishes, 40 species of marine birds, 17 cetaceans, 2 pinnipeds (and several others visiting from the north), and 2 endangered species of sea turtles. Yet despite this diversity and the ecological connections between them, each species has historically been managed independently from the others. This management paradigm has failed, however, as centuries of unsustainable exploitation have brought the Gulf of Maine’s marine biota over a threshold for dramatic change in ecosystem structure."
from... Institute for Ocean Conservation Science