August 2, 2004 — The NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program manages 13 national marine sanctuaries, encompassing more than 18,000 square miles of ocean and Great Lakes waters from Washington State to the Florida Keys, and from Lake Huron to American Samoa. Sanctuaries range in size from less than one to more than 5,300 square miles. In addition, the sanctuary program manages the 130,000 square-mile Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve. Taken
together, the area of the fourteen sites is approximately 20,000 square-miles larger than the total area managed by the National Park Service. Within these waters,
colorful fish swim through lush kelp forests, giant humpback whales breed and calve their young, coral colonies flourish and shipwrecks tell stories of our maritime history.

Title III of the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 established the National Marine Sanctuary Program with the goal to conserve, protect and enhance the biodiversity, ecological integrity and cultural legacy of areas of the marine environment that have special conservation, recreation, ecological, historical, cultural, scientific, educational or esthetic qualities. Two years after the act was passed, the nation's first marine sanctuary was created to preserve the wreckage of the USS Monitor, a Civil War ironclad resting in 240 feet of water off the North Carolina coast.

Let’s take a tour of our other sanctuaries:

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is located in the western Gulf of Maine at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay. The bank is approximately 26 miles long and has been a productive fishing ground for centuries. It is also home to the endangered right whale and is one of the best areas in the world for whale watching.

Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary comprises one of the largest nearshore sandstone reefs in the southeastern United States. The sanctuary’s ledges are known as a “live bottom habitat” because of its abundance of hard and soft coral, sponges and hydroids. The reef attracts numerous fish, including grouper, black sea bass, mackerel and angelfish.

The waters immediately surrounding most of the 1,700 islands that make up the Florida Keys were designated as the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in 1990. The sanctuary is the third largest barrier coral reef in the world. The sanctuary has a unique combination of flora and fauna because the Florida Keys serve as a partial barrier between the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is in the Gulf of Mexico and located approximately 110 miles off the Texas/Louisiana coast. The banks contain the northernmost coral reefs in the continental United States and form the basis for a complex ecosystem that is a regional oasis for shallow-water Caribbean reef species.

Five sanctuaries are located along the U.S. west coast. The northernmost is the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which covers more than 3,300 square miles of ocean waters off Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. The sanctuary provides habitat for one of the most diverse marine mammal faunas in North America and is a critical link in the Pacific flyway. More species of whales, dolphins and porpoises spend time in these waters and more kinds of kelp are found here than anywhere else in the world.

At the edge of the continental shelf and approximately 50 miles northwest of the Golden Gate Bridge, Cordell Bank rises from the seafloor. Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary protects the bank and its surrounding water for a total area of 526 square miles. Endangered humpback whales, along with Dall's porpoises, albatross, shearwaters and countless other marine species flourish in this extraordinarily productive marine environment.

Bordering Cordell Bank, just north and west of San Francisco Bay is the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. It is a large expanse of ocean along with nearshore tidal flats, rocky intertidal areas, wetlands, subtidal reefs and coastal beaches. The Farallon Islands are home to the largest concentration of breeding seabrids in the contiguous United States.

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is the largest sanctuary and stretches 400 miles from north to south - covering more than 5,300 square miles. The sanctuary has a diverse range of marine animals, including the sea otter; gray, blue and humpback whales; market squid; brown pelican; rockfish and extensive giant kelp forests.

The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is located 25 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., and encompasses the waters surrounding the five northern Channel Islands. Every year, more than 27 species of whales and dolphins visit or inhabit the sanctuary including the rare blue, humpback and sei whales. The brown pelican, an endangered species, maintains its only permanent U.S. rookery in the sanctuary.

The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is a series of five marine protected areas distributed across the main Hawaiian Islands. These areas of shallow warm water constitute one of the world's most important breeding and nursery habitats for the endangered humpback whale.

More than 2,000 miles south of Hawaii lies the smallest and most remote of all the national marine sanctuaries — covering a total of only 163 acres (less than one square mile). Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary is located in American Samoa and is the only tropical coral reef in the sanctuary system.

The most recent site to be designated was the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve. This sanctuary is the nation’s first Great Lakes sanctuary and contains approximately 120 shipwrecks that span more than a century of maritime history.

NOAA also manages the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve. Currently, the National Marine Sanctuary Program is considering this site for sanctuary designation. This area is home to more than 7,000 marine species, half of which are unique to the Hawaiian Island chain.

The sanctuary program works closely with its partners and the public to protect and manage sanctuaries, while allowing compatible recreation and commercial activities. The program works to enhance public awareness of our marine resources and marine heritage through scientific research, monitoring, exploration, educational programs and outreach. NOAA is dedicated to fulfilling its mission to protect and preserve America’s ocean and Great Lakes treasures for this and future generations.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA National Ocean Service

National Marine Sanctuaries Program

Marine Sanctuaries

Sanctuaries News

Science and Education at the National Marine Sanctuaries Program

Marine Sanctuaries Publications

Marine Sanctuaries Photo Gallery

Special Offerings from the National Marine Sanctuaries Program

NOAA ANNOUNCES IMPORTANT NEW HUMPBACK WHALE RESEARCH

RESEARCHERS TO USE INFRARED LASER-SCAN TO CREATE 3-D MODEL OF THE USS
MONITOR’S TURRET AND STEAM ENGINE

NOAA AND PARTNERS RETURN TO 19th CENTURY STEAMSHIP PORTLAND
Researchers Also to Survey Sunken Schooners and Mystery Wrecks in the NOAA
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Media Contact:
Glenda Powell, NOAA Ocean Service, (301) 713-3066 ext. 191 or Ben Sherman, NOAA Ocean Service, (301) 713-3066 ext. 178