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.