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The National Marine Sanctuary Program–National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Long–Term Agreement (NMSP–NCCOS LTA)
Recent NCCOS Sanctuary News
July 28, 2008: Join the scientists and crew aboard the NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER as they publish daily updates to their research cruise of the Dry Tortugas, off of Key West, Florida. Divers will revisit 20 permanent sites within and outside of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve and conduct fish surveys both on the coral reef edges and out onto the bordering sand. These sites were originally established in 2000, when the Tortugas Reserve was implemented by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and have been revisited every year from 2001–2005 and 2007.
THE PARTNERSHIP: The NMSP/NCCOS partnership was initiated by Dr. Nancy 
Foster in 1999, and the interaction between the two programs has become a relationship that both Program Offices value highly. The overarching goal of both NMSP and NCCOS is to effectively manage NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries using the best available science and to utilize NOAA research capabilities embodied in NCCOS to assist in meeting this goal. The measure of success is determined by meeting the goals of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act , individual sanctuary management plans, and research needs as defined in the report "Sanctuary Science: Evaluation of Status and Information Needs" (2002). Based on these needs, a scientific program to support, and where necessary, refine these goals and measures has been developed.
It is NCCOS’s aim to work with NMSP to help refine this science–based management program by providing a research perspective in the formulation of the management goals. Working with NMSP staff, NCCOS has begun the process of supporting the application of sanctuary management goals by both designing and implementing new research projects and integrating ongoing studies into this mission. As the results of these projects mature, we will evaluate the effectiveness of the research activities in supporting these requirements, and utilize these data to provide defensible, peer–reviewed and thus, science-based recommendations regarding the consequences of management actions on sanctuary resources and management goals.
For more information, contact the Program Coordinator, Patricia Hay (Patricia.Hay@noaa.gov) or the Program Managers, Dr. Mark Fonseca (NCCOS) and Steve Gittings (NMSP) (Mark.Fonseca@noaa.gov, Steve.Gittings@noaa.gov).
Related Documents and Links
- Sanctuary Science
- NMSP/NCCOS Liaison Reports
- Background on the Partnership
- NMSP/NCCOS Research Focus
- June 28, 2007: Deep–sea coral and sponge research at Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary
- August 25–31, 2007: Comparative analysis of the function of disturbed and undisturbed coral reef and non–coral ecosystems in the Tortugas: Measuring the refugia effect of establishing a reserve.
