About the National System of Marine Protected Areas

The United States has developed a national system of marine protected areas (MPAs) to advance the conservation and sustainable use of the nation’s vital natural and cultural marine resources. The national system is described in detail in the Framework for a National System of Marine Protected Areas for the United States.

The national system of MPAs:

• enhances protection of U.S. marine resources by providing new opportunities for regional and national cooperation;
• supports the national economy by helping to sustain fisheries and maintain healthy marine ecosystems for tourism and recreation businesses; and
• promotes public participation in MPA decision-making by improving access to scientific and public policy information.

The purpose of the national system is to support the effective stewardship, conservation, restoration, sustainable use, and public understanding and appreciation of the nation’s significant natural and cultural marine heritage and sustainable production marine resources, with due consideration of the interests of and implications for all who use, benefit from, and care about our marine environment.

The goals of the national system are to conserve and manage:

• Natural heritage – the nation’s biological communities, habitats, ecosystems, and processes and the ecological services, values and uses they provide
• Cultural heritage – cultural resources that reflect the nation’s maritime history and traditional cultural connections to the sea, as well as the uses and values they provide
• Sustainable production – the nation’s renewable living resources and their habitats (including, but not limited to, spawning, mating, and nursery grounds and areas established to minimize bycatch of species) and the social, cultural and economic values and services they provide

Benefits of a National System of MPAs
The National System provides benefits to the nation, to participating MPAs, and to ocean stakeholders. Examples of some of these benefits include:

• Enhanced stewardship through better coordination, public awareness and enhanced site management capacity
• Building partnerships for MPAs to work together toward common conservation objectives
• Increased support for marine conservation through the recognition provided by the national system
• Protecting representative ecosystems and resources from all the nation’s ecosystem and habitat types.
• Identifying gaps in current protection of ocean resources to help inform future MPA planning
• Transparent process for MPA planning that is science-based and includes a commitment to balanced stakeholder

Nomination Process
Eligible MPAs are invited to nominate their sites to be part of the national system of MPAs. The nomination process is transparent, science-based, and provides an opportunity for public comment. The first round of nominations will start in November 2009. After the first round, nominations will be accepted at any time, with a formal announcement and updates made on an annual basis.

Download the nomination package.

Identifying Conservation Gaps
The national system has two primary areas of focus: strengthening and coordinating existing MPAs, and identifying conservation gaps, significant resource areas where additional protection may be needed. The MPA Center will conduct a transparent, science-based gap analysis process with partners in each region, with stakeholder involvement. The first gap analysis will be conducted for the West Coast (California, Washington and Oregon) in 2009-10. It will focus on mapping areas that contribute to the national system’s natural heritage and sustainable production priority conservation objectives. Critical cultural heritage areas will be identified through a separate process after the ecological gap analysis.

Public Participation
In developing the Framework, the MPA Center engaged the nation in a multi-year dialogue to ensure that the national system represents the nation’s interests in the conservation and sustainable use of its natural and cultural marine resources. The MPA Center continues to work with and solicit input from federal, state, tribal, and local government partners, Fishery Management Councils, stakeholder groups, and the general public about their perspectives on the national system.

List of National System Sites
The MPA Center will maintain a List of National System MPAs.  The List will be the official inventory of all MPAs that have been formally included in and recognized as part of the National System of MPAs, and will include the following information for each national system MPA:  name, location, national system MPA category, priority conservation objective(s) contributed to, boundaries, key resources protected, authorizing legislation, levels and types of protection, managing authority or program, name of point of contact, and relevant contact information.
The List of National System MPAs is expected to be published in Spring 2009.

Links
MPA Executive Order 13158
Framework for Developing the National System of MPAs
Definition of Marine Protected Areas
Marine Protected Areas Inventory
Fact Sheets
Frequently Asked Questions about MPAs
Archive: Draft Framework and Revised Draft Framework

For More Information
If you would like more information about the MPA Center's efforts to develop the national system of MPAs, please write to mpa.comments@noaa.gov.