National Marine Sanctuary

Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

Agency overview
Formed	October 23, 1972; 51 years ago (1972-10-23)
Jurisdiction	United States federal government
Headquarters	1305 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Employees	350
Annual budget	$50 million (2016)[1]
Agency executive	John Armor, Acting Director of The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
Parent agency	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Website	www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov

A U.S. National Marine Sanctuary is a zone within United States waters where the marine environment enjoys special protection.^[2] The program was established in 1972 by the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act and is currently administered by the National Ocean Service through the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA).^[3]

A U.S. National Marine Sanctuary is a federally designated area within United States waters that protects areas of the marine environment with special conservation, recreational, ecological, historical, cultural, archeological, scientific, educational, or aesthetic qualities. While National Marine Sanctuaries are multiple-use areas, the NMSA emphasizes that one of the express purposes of a sanctuary is to “maintain the natural biological communities” and to “protect and, where appropriate, restore and enhance natural habitats, populations, and ecological processes.” The National Marine Sanctuary System consists of 15 marine protected areas that encompass more than 783,000 square miles (2,030,000 km²). Individual areas range from less than 1 to 583,000 square miles (3 to 1,509,963 km²).^[4]

The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), administers the 15 national marine sanctuaries. The program began after the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill off the coast of California brought the plight of marine ecosystems to national attention. The United States Congress responded in 1972 with the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act which allowed for the creation of marine sanctuaries. The resources protected by U.S. national marine sanctuaries range from coral reef ecosystems in American Samoa, Florida, Hawaii, and Texas, to shipwrecks in the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.^[5]

The NMSP also is involved in the administration of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, although they are not U.S. national marine sanctuaries. The NMSP jointly administers the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in conjunction with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Hawaii, and it jointly administers the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.