West Coast Groundfish Survey Data was incorporated into the Offshore Component of the Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregional Assessment. The focus was on reviewing and assessing the utility of the existing groundfish trawl survey data from the National Marine Fisheries Service for use in The Nature Conservancy's spatially-explicit marine ecoregional planning process. The primary purpose of these surveys has been to collect long-term distribution and abundance information to support management of commercially-harvested managed groundfish species. We used these data to help select marine fish targets and determine location and relative abundances.

NOTE: In using fisheries-related information in our ecoregional planning process we attempt to broaden our biodiversity conservation toolkit to include multiple management objectives, or ecosystem-based management (E-BM). To learn more about our E-BM approach visit the Marine Planning website.