The National Marine Conservation Areas System Plan is an important step in the process of creating a finite network of national marine conservation areas. The plan sets out an approach for the system's design in which Canada's three bordering oceans and the Great Lakes have been divided into 29 distinct marine regions, with a long-term goal of having a national marine conservation area within each region. The plan also attempts to portray each marine region with descriptions of its wildlife, marine and coastal environments, and current status of conservation areas in the region. The appendix includes a glossary and a list of marine-associated species assigned a status by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.