The NOAA Marine Operations Center-Pacific (MOC-P) serves as a homeport for two NOAA ships and provides administrative, engineering, maintenance, and logistical support to NOAA’s Pacific fleet.

The facility, which NOAA leases from the Port of Newport, includes 40,852 square feet of office and warehouse space, a 1,300-foot-long wharf, and a small boat dock. The main buildings are built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards for environmentally sustainable construction. NOAA signed a 20-year lease with the Port of Newport in August 2009 following a competitive lease award process.

MOC-P supports five ships, including vessels homeported in California and Alaska. The center and ships are part of the Silver Spring, MD based NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, which includes civilians and NOAA Corps officers. 

The ships in NOAA’s Pacific fleet collect data essential to protecting marine mammals, coral reefs and historic shipwrecks, managing commercial marine fish stocks, understanding climate processes, and producing nautical charts that help keep mariners safe. NOAA ships also deploy and help maintain buoys that gather oceanographic and weather information and warn of tsunamis.

The Newport facility also houses the Marine Operations directorate, which oversees the Pacific, Pacific-Islands, and Atlantic marine centers and all NOAA ship operations.