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NOAA Launches Online Register of Marine Protected Areas
June 10, 2008
 NOAA's
National Marine Protected Areas Center, in cooperation with
the Department of the Interior, has created a first ever online
inventory of the nation's marine protected areas (MPAs). This
unique, comprehensive inventory catalogs and classifies marine
protected areas within US waters, and was developed with extensive
input from state and federal MPA programs, as well as other
publically available data. It provides baseline information
that will contribute to the development of the National System
of MPAs, as defined in Executive Order 13158.
"This
is a milestone in the development of a national system of
marine protected areas," says John H. Dunnigan, NOAA assistant
administrator of the National Ocean Service.
"Not only will the MPA Inventory be a key resource for nominating
eligible sites to the national system, but it will also serve
as a valuable tool for MPA managers and stakeholders, enabling
them to make more informed decisions about current and future
management of our nation's marine resources."
The
MPA Inventory, posted on http://www.MPA.gov,
contains a range of information on each protected area established
or managed by federal, state, or territorial agencies or programs.
For each site, it includes the following information: Site
Name, Region, Level of Government, Level of Protection, Permanence,
Constancy, Scale of Protection, Conservation Focus, Primary
Conservation Focus, Fishing Restrictions, and Area. Both tabular
and GIS spatial data can be downloaded, as well as mapping
products and analysis reports created using the MPA Inventory
data.
Information
in the MPA Inventory is current as of December 2007. Data
was collected from most federal, state, and territorial agencies
and programs. For states that chose not to participate in
the inventory, the MPA Center collected the best publicly
available information. All information has been quality checked
by the MPA Center to ensure consistent application of definitions.
The MPA Inventory will be updated annually.
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency
of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing
economic security and national safety through the prediction
and research of weather and climate-related events and information
service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental
stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources.
Through the emerging Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is
working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries
and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring
network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts
and protects.
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