From the foreword: Canada, Mexico, and the United States not only share many ecosystems and migratory species, but are also increasingly linked through economic, social and cultural exchange. From the tropical humid forests to the tundra and from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Maine, North America is home to a great wealth of diversity. North Americans, in the broad sense, are seeking new means to protect the richness of life on our shared continent. New initiatives are being implemented at national and local levels. One such means is through the collaboration promoted by the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation--a side agreement of the Free Trade Agreement, which has as one of its objectives to "increase cooperation to better conserve, protect and enhance the environment, including wild flora and fauna.” The development of the North American Marine Ecoregions has served as a focal point, bringing together various classifications and approaches as well as valuable work of numerous experts and institutions. The project relied heavily upon the combined experience of trinational specialists and resource managers in marine classification and mapping. The resultant framework does not attempt to be a complete, all-encompassing product that will be all things to all people. Rather, itsgoal was to be a common starting point, a scalable framework to collect and organize information, encourage further cooperation, that could be used as a tool to better understand and manage our North American marine ecosystems.