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National Marine Sanctuaries

The National Marine Sanctuary Program serves as a trustee for 14 clearly bounded systems in which environmental education, ecosystem monitoring, and evaluation of the effects of natural and human stressors are conducted. CCFHR provides liaison between the scientific research staff of NCCOS and the management of the National Marine Sanctuaries Program. We help to design the research strategy that puts NOAA’s management on the best scientific basis.

In addition, several CCFHR staff serve as liaisons between NCCOS and individual sanctuaries including Gray’s Reef, Gary E. Studds-Stellwagen Bank, Gulf of the Farallones, Cordell Bank, Florida Keys, Monitor, and Thunder Bay.

CCFHR staff also conduct research at some of the sanctuary sites. At Gray’s Reef, we are working to develop the refugia concept and determining the scale of ecosystem function. Work is beginning on development of a coupled biological-physical model that predicts the fate of fish larvae spawned in the sanctuary and the source of fish larvae that settle in the sanctuary. This will help in determining the role of this protected area in the larger coastal ocean ecosystem. In other work, the structure of the food web within the sanctuary is being investigated using stable isotope tracer techniques.

CCFHR has a long history or working in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Recently we have performing a comparative analysis of the function of disturbed and undisturbed coral reef and adjacent habitats in the Tortugas Ecological Reserve within the sanctuary. We have also characterized the fishery resources and habitats with the coral-seagrass bank channels in the nearshore region. Much of CCFHR’s work in assessing damage, recovery, and restoration methods in seagrass and coral habitats has been carried out in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

We have begun efforts to support the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, the Nation’s 14th and latest National Marine Sanctuary. We are determining the primary producers and food web that support apex predators (especially large fish, sharks, seals, and marine birds) of the reserve. This work was useful to managers defining the sanctuary's boundaries.