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

The fourth meeting of the Working Group on the Northwest Atlantic Regional Sea (WGNARS), chaired by Catherine Johnson, Canada, and Sarah Gaichas, USA, was held at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, NS, Canada, from 28 January-1 February 2013. The meeting was well-attended, with 35 participants from the US and Canada. The overarching objective of WGNARS is to develop Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) capacity in the Northwest Atlantic region to support ecosystem approaches to science and management. The NW Atlantic region has well-developed ocean observation systems, ecosystem surveys and habitat studies, and steps are being taken throughout the region to organize existing information and ef-fectively communicate it to stakeholders and decision-makers. These continuing syn-thesis efforts and an updated list of observation assets were reviewed at the meeting.