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Large marine ecosystems (LMEs) are regions of the world's oceans, encompassing coastal areas from river basins and estuaries to the seaward boundaries of continental shelves and the outer margins of the major ocean current systems. They are relatively large regions on the order of 200,000 km² or greater, characterized by distinct bathymetry, hydrography, productivity, and trophically dependent populations.

The system of LMEs has been developed by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to identify areas of the oceans for conservation purposes.

Although the LMEs cover only the continental margins and not the deep oceans and oceanic islands, the 64 LMEs produce 95% of the world's annual marine fishery biomass yields. Most of the global ocean pollution, overexploitation, and coastal habitat alteration occur within their waters. NOAA has conducted studies of principal driving forces affecting changes in biomass yields for 33 of the 64 LMEs, which have been peer-reviewed and published in ten volumes [1].

1. East Bering Sea
2. Gulf of Alaska
3. California Current
4. Gulf of California
5. Gulf of Mexico
6. Southeast U.S. Continental Shelf
7. Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf
8. Scotian Shelf
9. Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf
10. Insular Pacific-Hawaiian
11. Pacific Central-American Coastal
12. Caribbean Sea
13. Humboldt Current
14. Patagonian Shelf
15. South Brazil Shelf
16. East Brazil Shelf
17. North Brazil Shelf
18. West Greenland Shelf
19. East Greenland Shelf
20. Barents Sea
21. Norwegian Shelf
22. North Sea
23. Baltic Sea
24. Celtic-Biscay Shelf
25. Iberian Coastal
26. Mediterranean Sea
27. Canary Current
28. Guinea Current
29. Benguela Current
30. Agulhas Current
31. Somali Coastal Current
32. Arabian Sea
33. Red Sea
34. Bay of Bengal
35. Gulf of Thailand
36. South China Sea
37. Sulu-Celebes Sea
38. Indonesian Sea
39. North Australian Shelf
40. Northeast Australian Shelf/Great Barrier Reef
41. East-Central Australian Shelf
42. Southeast Australian Shelf
43. Southwest Australian Shelf
44. West-Central Australian Shelf
45. Northwest Australian Shelf
46. New Zealand Shelf
47. East China Sea
48. Yellow Sea
49. Kuroshio Current
50. Sea of Japan
51. Oyashio Current
52. Sea of Okhotsk
53. West Bering Sea
54. Chukchi Sea
55. Beaufort Sea
56. East Siberian Sea
57. Laptev Sea
58. Kara Sea
59. Iceland Shelf
60. Faroe Plateau
61. Antarctica
62. Black Sea
63. Hudson Bay
64. Arctic Ocean

• ecoregion