In 2003-2004, PacMARA arose from a series of workshops that brought together diverse stakeholders interested in the Northwest marine region of coastal British Columbia. These regulators, practitioners, and advocates for the sea recognized a need for cooperative science-based knowledge in order to achieve an ecosystem-based management (EBM) strategy and set of guiding principles for BC. Responding to this need, PacMARA was formed and began operating soon after.

In 2005, PacMARA was formally incorporated as a British Columbia not-for-profit society. In 2006, we received a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to expand our capacity building services to the BC and larger Canadian marine planning community. In 2010, while funded through federal grants and service provision, PacMARA began to lead international trainings and workshops, and started facilitating groups working towards advancing EBM and marine spatial science and planning.

Our mission is to support collaborative marine ecosystem-based decision making through scientific analysis, facilitation, and training