Authorizing Mandate | Sanctuary Management

More than 25 different species of marine mammals live in, or visit the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Of those, many are large whales such as Humpbacks.

The National Marine Sanctuary Program, administered by NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS), manages and protects specially designated areas of the nation’s oceans and Great Lakes for their habitats, ecological value, threatened and endangered species, and historic, archeological, recreational and esthetic resources. Thirteen sanctuaries are part of this program. They are:

• Channel Islands (California)
• Cordell Bank (California)
• Fagatele (Fong’-uh-tell’-ee) Bay (American Samoa)
• Florida Keys (Florida)
• Flower Garden Banks (Texas/Louisiana)
• Gray’s Reef (Georgia)
• Gulf of the Farallones (California)
• Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale (Hawaii)
• Monitor (North Carolina)
• Monterey Bay (California)
• Olympic Coast (Washington)
• Stellwagen Bank (Massachusetts)
• Thunder Bay (Michigan)
  
  

Steps are underway to designate the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve as the 14th national marine sanctuary.

The sanctuaries range in size from one-quarter square mile in Fagatele Bay to over 5,300 square miles in Monterey Bay, which is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. Together these sanctuaries encompass over 18,000 square miles of waters and marine habitats, an area nearly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. The special habitats of the sanctuaries include deep ocean and near-shore coral reefs, live bottom, whale migration corridors, deep sea canyons, areas of deep water upwelling, submerged banks that rise close to the ocean surface, kelp forests, and sea grass beds.

Marine sanctuaries that are adjacent to land extend into the intertidal zone. Here ochre sea stars, (Pisaster ochraceus), a voracious predator, feeds on mussels and other mollusks.

Authorizing Mandate

The National Marine Sanctuary Program was created by the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. This authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to designate and manage areas of the marine environment with special national significance due to their conservation, recreational, ecological, historical, scientific, cultural, archeological, educational, or esthetic qualities as national marine sanctuaries. The Act also directs the Secretary to facilitate all public and private uses of those resources that are compatible with the primary objective of resource protection. Amendments to the Act in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000 have modified the process of how sites are designated, and have given the Secretary the authority to issue special use permits and enhance enforcement activities. The legislative history (pdf, 40Kb) and regulatory history of the marine sanctuary program as well as a program timeline since 1972 are available on the National Marine Sanctuary Program Web site.

Sanctuary Management

Interpretive programs like nature walks guide visitors in discovering more of the wonders of the national marine sanctuaries.

Because sanctuaries are formally designated marine protected areas (MPAs), they are focal points of conservation efforts. Coral reefs, found in five sanctuaries, are closely monitored as part of NOS’s role on the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force and its National Action Plan to Conserve Coral Reefs. Some sanctuaries also are subject to special management provisions and restoration efforts such as those in the Florida Keys. NOS also works to strengthen the management, protection, and conservation of national marine sanctuaries by revising individual sanctuary management plans regularly. Each sanctuary also conducts its own education program that includes field trips, school presentations, posters, brochures and videos.

The sanctuaries are classrooms and laboratories for students and marine scientists. Each sanctuary conducts extensive research and monitoring efforts, which are carried out and supported by many partners including federal, state, and local government agencies, academic institutions, and nongovernmental organizations. Marine scientists, supported by NOAA, are sailing on voyages of discovery to explore the hidden mysteries within the nation's sanctuaries. Expeditions have occurred in the West Coast sanctuaries, southeast and Gulf of Mexico sanctuaries, the Monitor sanctuary, and the Thunder Bay sanctuary in the Great Lakes.

NOAA’s Coastal and Ocean Resource Economics Program (CORE) helps sanctuary managers address socioeconomic issues by linking economics with the environment. CORE has been involved in places like the Florida Keys and Channel Islands national marine sanctuaries where marine reserves (areas of restricted use) are proposed within a sanctuary.