Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment

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Gulf of Maine Library Collection

Sustaining Resources in the Gulf of Maine: Toward Regional Management of Actions. Judith Pederson, David Vander Zwaag. January 1997. 103 pp.

The Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land Based Activities (GPA) was developed to assist regional and national authorities in countering marine and coastal pollution. In 1995 both the United States and Canada agreed to strengthen all efforts addressing marine degradation from land based sources. As a result of this agreement, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) chose the Gulf of Maine for a pilot project to help develop regional activities using the methodology of the GPA. This working paper contains an overview of the GPA methodology, as well as an overview of the Gulf of Maine region. The paper describes and examines in some length the contaminants in the Gulf of Maine, offering pie charts to show the percentage of pollutants flowing from each state and province in the region. Also within the paper is a comparison of the approaches used by the United States and Canada to managing land-based activities and pollution, as well as descriptions of existing initiatives and programs that address this issue. The working paper concludes by offering an initial assessment of the objectives and actions within the Gulf of Maine.

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