The Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystems

In this volume, marine experts describe the principal components of the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem. They include observations on human induced stress on the system and mitigating actions underway to improve the prospects for achieving greater long-term socioeconomic benefits from the ecosystem. The natural resources of the Gulf are important to the economy of the coastal border states of the United States and Mexico. Of particular importance to the coastal population centers are the fish and fisheries resources, recreational facilities, offshore oil production, and the wide diversity of fish, bird, and mammal species. Among the problems reviewed in the volume are the increasing incidence and extent of harmful algal blooms, oxygen depletion events, pollution hot-spots, loss of wetlands, and losses of fishery productivity and yield through overexploitation and by-catch discards.