The Twelfth Consultative Committee Meeting on Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs), convened by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), was held in Paris on 8-9 July 2010. The meeting was hosted by IOC at UNESCO headquarters, and chaired by IOC Executive Secretary Dr. Wendy Watson-Wright, Dr. Luis Valdes, Head Ocean Science Section, IOC-UNESCO, and Dr. Kenneth Sherman of NOAA. The meeting was well attended, with 33 marine experts participating. Welcoming the group to the meeting were Wendy Watson-Wright, the new IOC-UNESCO General Secretary, and Luis Valdes, IOC Chief of the Section for Ocean Science.