"Place Matters explores how marine GIS is contributing to the understanding, management, and conservation of the shores and ocean of the Pacific Northwest, where scientists, resource managers, and conservationists - often in collaboration - are making advances in the way that data are collected, documented, used, shared, and saved." "The book includes a conceptual framework that lays out selected methods and models for conservation-based marine GIS, working examples of marine GIS tools and large-scale implementations, and a section on the use of GIS by environmental advocacy and local citizens' organizations. A companion Web site includes GIS maps and databases, as well as extensive Web-based resources. With its unique focus on the use of GIS to solve marine conservation problems, Place Matters offers an important new resource for all who study and work to protect the world's oceans."--BOOK JACKET.