What is the National Marine Protected Areas Center and what does it do?
The National Marine Protected Areas Center is housed within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Its main purpose is to provide the science, information, tools, and strategies to assess the effectiveness of existing and any future MPAs. It supports the MPA Federal Advisory Committee, and oversees the process to collect an inventory of marine protected areas. It also seeks to raise the national dialog about MPAs by working with federal and non-federal partners and communities.
