WHAT IS THE IMPORTANT MARINE MAMMAL AREAS SPECIALIST GROUP?

The Important Marine Mammal Areas Specialist Group (IMMA SG) was created as a Task Force in 2013 by the International Committee on Marine Mammal Protected Areas (ICMMPA), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Marine Vice Chair, and members of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC) to help support a stronger global profile and to provide a stronger voice for the MMPA constituency within IUCN. In 2026 the Task Force was invited by IUCN to form a Specialist Group.

The goal of the IMMAs SG is to facilitate mechanisms to encourage collaboration, sharing information and experience, accessing and disseminating knowledge and tools for establishing, monitoring, and managing MMPA and promoting effective spatial solutions and best practices for marine mammal conservation within MMPA.

From 2016-2026, the Task Force has been focusing on setting up a series of regional workshops to identify Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs), beginning with the Mediterranean in 2016, followed by the South Pacific, the Northeast Indian, the Northwest Indian and the Southeast Pacific oceans, and the waters of Oceania surrounding Australia and New Zealand, the Black Sea, Turkish Straits System and the Caspian Sea, the South East Tropical and Temperate Pacific Ocean, the South West Atlantic Ocean, the North East Atlantic Ocean, and the North West Atlantic Ocean and Wider Caribbean Region