FGDC Marine Boundary Working Group

U.S. Marine Cadastre - Other U.S. Marine Boundaries

National Marine Sanctuary Boundaries
Primary Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Sanctuary Program, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.
Spatial Extent: Dependent on individual sanctuary designation, as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Description: National Marine Sanctuaries Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 1431 et seq.); Code of Federal Regulations (15 C.F.R. 922.41).
Official Depiction: May be drawn on NOAA Nautical Chart, but no references state that this is the official boundary.
Known Digital Data Source: As these files are developed, they will be placed on-line at http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/library/imast_gis.html
Notes: NOAA's Coastal Services Center is working with the National Ocean Service to update boundary files for all National Marine Sanctuaries.
Issues: Numerous problems with mapping coordinates published in the Federal Register as described in body of the report.

National Estuarine Research Reserve Boundaries
Primary Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Estuarine Research Reserve System, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.
Spatial extent: Dependent on individual reserve designation.
Description: Coastal Zone Management Act, as amended, sec. 315 (16 U.S.C. § 1461).
Official Depiction: None known. A map will be included in National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) site designation package.
Known Digital Data Source: NOAA Coastal Services Center's Protected Areas GIS (PAGIS) project. More information about this project is available on-line at http://mpa.gov
Notes: The polygon boundary classifies different areas within the reserve. The polygons in the boundary are attributed so that core areas can be distinguished from buffer or exclusion areas. See PAGIS Web site for details.
Issues: These data are not to be taken as the legal definition of the NERR boundaries.
Other U.S. marine boundaries include Coastal National Parks, Coastal National Forests, Coastal National Wildlife Refuges, and Coastal Indian Lands.