Large Marine Ecosystems of the United States

This section of our website is to familiarize people with the major LMEs of the United States of America. By rolling your cursor over the following map, you will see red regions appear, which indicates the watershed that drains to the specific LME appearing in yellow. It is vital for the US public to realize that that the health of their specific watershed, in the region where they live, is inextricably linked to the LME that the watershed drains to.

By clicking on a watershed or LME, you will be taken to educational materials that describe the ecosystem and provides information about NOAA's 5-module strategy (productivity and oceanography, fish and fisheries, pollution and ecosystem health, socioeconomics and governance) for assessing the health of these LME and watershed resources. 

Please choose a LME or watershed by clicking on a region of the map:

LME Map

California Current California Current

California Current Gulf of Alaska Beaufort Sea Chukchi Sea West Bering Sea East Bering Sea Gulf of California Gulf of California Gulf of Mexico Gulf of California Northeast Continental Shelf Southeast Continental Shelf Caribbean Sea Insular Pacific

Gulf of Mexico California Current Caribbean Sea Chukchi Sea East Bering Sea North East Continental Shelf
Gulf of California Beaufort Sea Insular Pacific Gulf of Alaska West Bering Sea South East Continental Shelf