The mission of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Program is to utilize remote sensing and in-situ tools for near real-time and long term monitoring, modeling and reporting of physical environmental conditions of coral reef ecosystems. Coral Reef Watch aims to assist in the management, study and assessment of impacts of environmental change on coral reef ecosystems.

Coral Reef Watch is a partnership among three NOAA line offices: OAR's Integrated Coral Observing Network (ICON) (the stations formerly known as Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) Network) and NURP-supported Caribbean Marine Research Center (CMRC), NMFS's Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), and NESDIS' Office of Research and Application (ORA), Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution (OSDPD), National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), and National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC).

Coral Reef Watch is an integral part of NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program, which supports effective management and sound science to preserve, sustain and restore coral reef ecosystems. The conservation program is a partnership between the NOAA Line Offices working on coral reef issues, including the National Ocean Service (NOS), the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS), the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and the National Environmental Satellites and Information Service (NESDIS).

Access to NOAA’s coral reef data and information is provided through NOAA’s Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS). Current news on NOAA’s coral reef activities can be found on the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program Web site.