North America's nearly 2,000 marine protected areas represent an
unprecedented effort to protect the continent's fragile marine
environments and are found throughout the marine ecoregions that
encircle our continent. The latest map from the North American
Environmental Atlas—coordinated by the Commission for
Environmental Cooperation (CEC)—for the first time brings
together information about all types of marine protected areas
in Canada, Mexico and the United States, offering details about
protection status and those responsible to manage the sites.
This map is an image of nighttime lights of North America,
including the Caribbean and Mexico. Image credit:The data were
collected in 1996 and 1997 as part of the Defense Meteorological
Satellite Program (DMSP) of the United States. A functional
network of marine protected areas is crucial for maintaining
ecological integrity and protecting migratory species and
transboundary habitats. They are also important to help
ecosystems recover from or adapt to a wide var