Interim Report of the Working Group on the Northwest Atlantic Regional Sea (WGNARS)

The ninth meeting of the Working Group on the Northwest Atlantic Regional Sea (WGNARS), chaired by Robert Gregory (Canada) and Geret DePiper (USA) was held at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, in Falmouth, MA, USA, on 5–9 March 2018. The meeting was attended by 22 participants from the US and Canada, with an additional two participants calling in remotely. The overarching objective of WGNARS is to develop Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) capacity in the North-west Atlantic region to support ecosystem approaches to science and management.This report reviews the second WGNARS meeting within the current 3-year Terms of Reference (ToRs). The two major activities at the March 2018 meeting were to (a) pre-pare a progress report on ToRs a–e, and (b) encourage and enhance intersessional col-laboration across the region on research initiatives in support of IEA science. In 2017, highlights of this intersessional work include the 2017 collaboration between WGNARS and the US Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council on an ecosystem-level risk assessment, and member contributions towards the draft Canadian State of the Ocean (SOTO) Report for the Atlantic. During 2018, a number of WG products will be developed to continue to address the current ToRs including (1) a review of best practices in incorporating habitat into IEA science, (2) a linear transition matrix model for showcasing intertemporal management trade-offs, (3) comparisons of quantitative and qualitative models to assess the level of concurrence between the approaches, (4) preparation of a manuscript exploring the limitations of currently employed indicator analyses, (5) development of a dynamic factor analysis to facilitate indicator selection, (6) spatial approaches to indicator assessment, and (7) strawmen conceptual models to illustrate the transition from the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Risk As-sessment to an ecosystem-level management strategy evaluation.