CCMA Data and GIS Products Support Designation of Pacific Marine National Monuments
In a direct response to a request from the White House Council on Environmental Quality, information provided by the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), with support from NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program, significantly contributed to the designation by President Bush on January 6, 2009 of three Marine National Monuments in the Pacific Ocean. The data demonstrate that the new marine national monuments, Marianas Trench, Rose Atoll, and Pacific Remote Islands, contain some of the largest areas of live coral cover, high biomass, and abundance of reef fish in U.S. waters. CCMA’s Biogeography Branch scientists, in collaboration with the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division, prepared extensive GIS map products and data summaries to support the President’s Executive Order to increase conservation efforts for the Pacific areas. For more information, contact Mark Monaco at (301) 713-3028 x160 or Mark.Monaco@noaa.gov or Rusty Brainard at (808) 944-2115 or Rusty.Brainard@noaa.gov.
