The MPA Inventory is a comprehensive GIS catalog that provides detailed information for existing marine protected areas in the United States in 2017. The inventory provides geospatial boundary information (in polygon format) and classification attributes that seek to define the conservation objectives, protection level, governance and related management criteria for all sites in the database. The comprehensive inventory of federal, state and territorial MPA sites provides governments and stakeholders with access to information to make better decisions about the current and future use of place-based conservation.

These data show the 17 national marine sanctuaries in the United States. The National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA) authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to designate and protect areas of the marine environment with special national significance due to their conservation, recreational, ecological, historical, scientific, cultural, archeological, educational or esthetic qualities as national marine sanctuaries.

NSW Marine Protected Areas - updated May 2023

These data provide the spatial boundaries of DeFacto Marine Protected Areas in U.S. Waters. With nearly 1200 sites (for which GIS data are available), DFMPAs cover 3% of the U.S. waters, (0-200 nautical miles offshore), which includes the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Territorial Sea, and state waters. DFMPAs range in size from less than one acre to more than 40,000 km2, though the vast majority is at the smaller end of this spectrum. Most of the small sites were created to provide places for vessels to anchor safely. Most of the large sites provide dedicated training and operation areas for various branches of the U.S. military, or facilitate the transfer of oil and gas to moored tanker vessels.

These data include all of Californias marine protected areas (MPAs) as January 1, 2019. This dataset reflects the Department of Fish and Wildlifes best representation of marine protected areas based upon current California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Section 632: Natural Resources, Division 1: FGC- DFG. This dataset is not intended for navigational use or defining legal boundaries.This version includes records for complementary federal marine protected areas at the northern Channel Islands. Details on these areas can be referenced at http://federalregister.gov/a/E7-10096.

MarineCadastre.gov is a marine information system that provides authoritative ocean data, offshore planning tools, and technical support to the offshore renewable energy community. The project was initiated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58) - Sec. 388 - Alternative Energy-Related Uses on the Outer Continental Shelf, which directs the secretary of the interior, in cooperation with the secretary of commerce, the commandant of the Coast Guard, and the secretary of defense, to establish an outer continental shelf (OCS) mapping initiative to assist in decision-making related to alternative energy uses on the OCS. At its core, MarineCadastre.gov contains marine cadastral data, which encompass the spatial extent, usage, rights, restrictions, and responsibilities of marine areas, as well as other regionally specific data needed to support planning, management, and conservation of submerged lands and marine spaces. The combination of marine cadastral and regionally specific data provides users with many of the data layers needed for renewable energy siting and other ocean planning efforts. The MarineCadastre.gov National Viewer is intended to be used as a planning and screening tool to inform decisions on ocean uses. It is not intended to be used for precise site selection, but rather to provide the geospatial picture of ocean planning data layers needed to make decisions about where suitable areas exist for offshore activities. MarineCadastre.gov also has more regionally focused viewers within its Map Gallery. Those viewers demonstrate how marine cadastre data can be used along with state or regionally applicable data sets to inform ocean planning decisions.The MarineCadastre.gov Data Registry lists all the data layers that can be found on MarineCadastre.gov with the ability to shop for layers, add these to a cart, and open in a map on ArcGIS Online. There are quarterly updates to the National Viewer and Data Registry. Please sign up for data updates here: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/publications/subscribe.

The United States Virgin Islands Topographic LiDAR project collected topographic elevation point data derived from multiple return light detection and ranging (LiDAR) measurements on the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and numerous smaller islands and islets in the United States Virgin Islands. The islands of St. Thomas and St. John were acquired between November 9, 2013 and November 19, 2013. The island of St. Croix was acquired between November 27, 2013 and December 10, 2013. The entire area was comprised of 88 planned flight lines and approximately 1669 flight line kilometers. LiDAR was collected at an average of 0.7 meter point spacing for all acquired project areas. The classification classes as available from the NOAA Digital Coast are: 1 (Unclassified), 2 (Bare-earth ground), 7 (Noise), 9 (Water), 10 (Ignored Ground, points close to breakline features), 16 (Overlap Water), 17 (Overlap Unclassified), 18 (Overlap Bare-earth ground). Hydro flattened breaklines and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are also available for download. Please see the Supplemental Information field below for links to these data sets. Original contact information: Contact Org: NOAA Office for Coastal Management Phone: 843-740-1202 Email: coastal.info@noaa.gov

This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for sea lions and harbor seals in Columbia River. Vector points in this data set represent locations of seal and sea lion haul-out sites. Species-specific abundance, seasonality, status, life history, and source information are stored in relational data tables (described below) designed to be used in conjunction with this spatial data layer.This data set comprises a portion of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data for Columbia River. ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil. The ESI data include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources. See also the M_MAMMAL (Marine Mammal Polygons) data layer, part of the larger Columbia River ESI database, for additional marine mammal information.

Marine Protected Areas (2006) - Guam, Mariana Islands