PLEASE NOTE that these data products were created using available data tracks, which are limited. While some corridors incorporated over 100 animal tracks, some have incorporated as few as 10. This is critical to note when drawing conclusions from our data products. These data products are a work in progress, and the information in this tool will be continually updated and improved over time.

Other notes:

• The movement density layers are computed by averaging available animal tracking satellite data.
• EEZ stands for Exclusive Economic Zone. Each country has jurisdiction over their EEZ and special rights for the exploration and use of marine resources within this zone.
• The U.S. Lease Blocks are a subdivision of U.S. Protraction Areas, shown here to give a finer scale look at migratory species. The Nature Conservancy plans to identify similar relevant layers in Mexico and Cuba, in order to provide this finer scale information throughout the Gulf.
• The Mexico Oil and Geological Provinces layer was created by merging Mexico Oil Provinces and Mexico Geological Provinces. Since the two boundaries are very similar, there are only a few new sections created by merging the two. They are labelled with both names in this tool.
• The movement density layer for U.S. Protraction Areas, U.S. Lease Blocks, and Mexico Oil and Geological Provinces was calculated as an average density within each administrative boundary unit. For the EEZ layer, the movement densities were summed within each EEZ and divided by the total between the three EEZs, normalizing the data so that each EEZ represents a percentage of the total three areas (U.S. EEZ + Mexico EEZ + Cuba EEZ = 100%).