Coastal & Marine Resources

Coral Gardens at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

Jim Maragos/USFWS

The National Wildlife Refuge System is responsible for 180 refuges with coastal, island, ocean or Great Lakes conservation responsibilities. The Refuge System is also among almost two dozen federal agencies responsible for implementing 140 ocean-related laws in the United States.

The Refuge System's geographic range includes both hemispheres, two 1000 mile long archipelagos, expansive estuarine systems from above the Arctic Circle to remote, coral reefs and tropical lagoons below the Equator. Our responsibilities cover an estimated 30,000 coastal miles across 30 million coastal acres, with tidally influenced holdings totaling 7 million acres. Coral reefs within the Refuge System total 2.95 million acres, in addition to the 89-million acre Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawai, managed jointly with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the State of Hawaii.

The Refuge System's ocean and coastal refuges and the Marine National Monument are considered the finest example of U.S. marine conservation areas dedicated to a "wildlife first" approach. Geographically, the National Wildlife Refuge System represents the largest and most ecologically comprehensive series of fully-protected marine areas under unified conservation management in the world.

FACT SHEETS

Coastal and Ocean Refuges (275 KB PDF)

Marine Refuge Program (1.4 MB PDF)

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Hawaii (1.3 MB PDF)

Coral Reef Refuges (950 KB PDF)

Rose Atoll National Monument (1.1 MB PDF)

Marianas Trench Marine National Monument (2.7 MB PDF)

Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (2.3 MB PDF)

Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Center for Marine Conservation (33 KB PDF)

Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge, Florida (94 KB PDF)

Key West National Wildlife Refuge, Florida (89 KB PDF)