Important Marine Mammal Areas

The Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA) programme is the main activity of the Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (MMPATF) which was launched in 2013 as a joint IUCN task force of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Species Survival Commission (SSC). IMMAs are defined as ‘discrete portions of habitat, important to marine mammal species, that have the potential to be delineated and managed for conservation’. They are peer-reviewed scientific evaluations of areas identified as being important for one or more species of marine mammal – cetaceans, sirenians, pinnipeds, polar bears and sea otters. The selection criteria include habitat that supports threatened species or populations, small resident populations, significant aggregations, important areas for reproduction, feeding, or migration, high marine mammal diversity, and areas where species have distinctive genetic, behavioural or ecological characteristics.

The initiative is intended to identify the places that are most important for marine mammals with the overarching goals of giving a louder voice to the animals’ need for protection and providing information that can be directly used and actioned by governments, industry, and the research and conservation communities. The currently recognised IMMAs are displayed on an e-Atlas and the spatial data, which have been accessed thousands of times, can be downloaded on request from the IMMA website.

The IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group has been integral to the IMMA programme since the beginning, providing vital contributions including the following:

• One of the CSG Co-Chairs (Randall Reeves) has been Chair of the IMMA Scientific Review Panel since the launch of the IMMA programme. This involves leading the selection of panel members with suitable expertise for the region, and then coordinating the reviews and recommendations concerning candidate IMMAs.
• The MMPATF Co-Chairs (Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara and Erich Hoyt) and Deputy Chairs (Gill Braulik and Simone Panigada) are all long-standing CSG Members.
• The IMMA Secretariat includes CSG Co-Chair Gianna Minton.
• A number of CSG members have served as members of the scientific review panel for specific regions.
• Most CSG members have participated in at least one expert regional workshop to identify IMMAs (not the same as for the review panel) and have proposed IMMAs for consideration.
• Many CSG members contributed to the refinement of the IMMA Guidance Document and to the development of the selection criteria.