Human uses of the seafloor are growing rapidly in variety and intensity, as population expands, technologies develop, and new economic activities emerge. In the Gulf of Maine, trawling, dredging, aquaculture, mining, engineering of fiber-optic and electric power cables, installation of oil and gas pipelines, construction of wind farms, and other activities can affect seabed habitats, which support a diversity of animals and plants. Successful management of these activities, to balance ecological impacts and conflicting uses, requires comprehensive maps of seafloor characteristics. Recent technological advances allow seafloor mapping on an unprecedented scale. In the Gulf of Maine, managers, scientists, and businesses are using new seafloor maps to improve decision-making (see case studies). To broaden this capability, an international partnership of government and non-government organizations called the Gulf of Maine Mapping Initiative (GOMMI) is working to map the remaining 85 percent of the Gulf and provide the maps on the Internet.

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The Gulf of Maine Council's Science Translation Project has produced "Mapping the undersea landscape: Using seafloor maps to improve management of the Gulf of Maine" (HTML | PDF, 455 KB).