• Complexity: Ecosystem research (seafloor mapping)
• Balance/Integration: Public outreach and education (Olympic Coast Discovery Center)
• Collaboration: Coordination with experts & stakeholders (Sanctuary Advisory Committee, Research Working Group)

• Establish liaisons with appropriate agencies to ensure the Sanctuary mandate can be carried out through a cooperative management strategy.
• Create OCNMS Advisory Committee.
• Coordinate with U.S. Coast Guard to conduct an emergency response drill.
• In conjunction with the proposed Area to be Avoided designation, work with Canadian and U.S. Coast Guards to generate a vessel traffic management plan for the sanctuary.

Lead Organization

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Key Parties

• Intergovernmental Policy Council (state of Washington and the Coastal Treaty Tribes, which all have jurisdiction over certain resources within the sanctuary)
• Makah, Quinault, Hoh, and Quileute Nations (Together hold 60 percent of shoreline)
• National Park Service (Olympic National Park holds 40 percent of sanctuary shoreline)
• Washington State Office of Tourism

Authority

Through the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA), Congress directs the Secretary of Commerce and NOAA to identify, designate and manage National Marine Sanctuaries for the American people. Federal law also provides the authority to adopt regulations and issue permits for certain activities. Congress also directs each National Marine Sanctuary to have a Management Plan and to periodically review and update the plan. The original plan was drafted in 1993 and adopted in 1994. Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) began its Management Plan Review in 2008.

Sanctuary Staff

Twenty employees support OCNMS including an oceanography specialist, management plan specialist, superintendent, research coordinator, graphic artist, marine biologist, and education specialist.

Sanctuary Advisory Council

Composed of dedicated volunteers who represent various interest groups as well as state, federal, tribal and local government organizations, the Sanctuary Advisory Council (SAC) provides advice to OCNMS staff on important policy issues.

Research Working Group

The Research Working Group (RWG) is a group of advisors who have specific scientific expertise. This group, separate from the SAC, does not hold meetings and will communicate chiefly by email and telephone conferencing on specific needs (i.e. scientific advice on technical topics). In the future a RWG email list will be maintained and interested individuals can ask to be placed on the list in order to follow topics being discussed by this group.

Marine Conservation Working Group

This group was active from April 2000 to October 2003 with the objective to evaluate marine zoning as a management tool, to make specific recommendations on the status and effectiveness of existing zoning for intertidal areas, and to develop an intertidal zoning strategy. 

Olympic Coast Discovery Center

A facility sited near the OCNMS headquarters that is open to the public and provides interactive interpretive exhibits. A staff member coordinates volunteer docents.

The marine sanctuary encompasses some of the last wilderness beaches in the country and provides habitat for rare and spectacular marine mammals and shorebirds.

In 1983, NOAA placed the site, also known as the western Washington Outer Coast, on the site evaluation list.

In the late 1980s, two major oil spills along the western Washington coast spurred conservationists to push for marine protections.

In 1988, Congress mandated that the sanctuary be designated by June 30, 1990 and NOAA began public hearings in April of 1989.

In 1994, NOAA officially designated the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. One of four priorities highlighted in the original management plan was the designation of an Area to be Avoided in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard to safeguard the sanctuary from accidental oil spills.

The Ecosystem

The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 3,310 square miles (8,573 square kilometers) and extends 25 to 50 miles out into the sea, covering much of the continental shelf and several major submarine canyons.

The sanctuary contains a variety of habitat types, including sand beaches and rocky intertidal shores, nearshore kelp forests and uninhabited islands, and deep coral and sponge communities and submarine canyons.

The sanctuary’s temperate location and complex physical environment maintain critical habitats for unique communities of organisms. This includes a productive upwelling zone which is home to rich marine mammal and seabird faunas, diverse populations of kelp and intertidal algae, and thriving invertebrate communities. Twenty-nine species of marine mammals and more than 100 seabird species enrich the system, while fish occupy a myriad of niches from deep ocean canyons to shallow tide pools.

The sanctuary is also rich in cultural resources, with over 150 documented historical shipwrecks and the vibrant contemporary cultures of Makah, Quinault, Hoh, and Quileute Nations (which together hold 60 percent of the OCNMS shoreline).

Research

The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary conducts an active program of physical oceanographic, geologic, marine archaeological and biological research. Its partnerships include marine research coordinated with other federal, tribal, and state agencies, as well as universities and private research organizations. As of 2010, approximately 19% (602 square miles) of the sanctuary seafloor has been mapped with sidescan and/or multibeam sonar.

Education

Management Plan Review

The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) is currently updating their management plan. Though the original 1994 plan stated the review would be held in five years (1999), it has taken significantly longer, with the formal process beginning in 2008. Key steps include the development of a Condition Report (2008), Notice of Intent (2008) to initiate management plan review process, public comment and scoping meetings (2008), development of Action Plans (2009), release of draft and draft management plan and a corresponding National Environmental Policy Act compliance document (2010), release final management plans (2011).

Oceanographic Characterization

The NOAA Center for Coastal Monitoring & Assessment group released a report called: An Oceanographic Characterization of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and Pacific Northwest: Interpretive Summary of Ocean Climate and Regional Processes through Satellite Remote Sensing. This document fills a critical information gap on natural ocean variability and this work will hopefully bring to light the potential of applied satellite ocean climate data in the context of site planning and education, ocean use, and other natural heritage elements.

Hypoxia Monitoring

In 2004 the OCNMS initiated dissolved oxygen monitoring to determine the timing, severity, and extent of depleted oxygen levels along the Olympic Coast. 

CSCAPE

In 2005, OCNMS collaborated with the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center to integrate long-term marine mammal and seabird surveys with the Collaborative Survey of Cetacean Abundance and the Pelagic Ecosystem. This survey is conducted every four years and covers the entire west coast of the United States out to 300 miles offshore, in order to assess the population status of marine mammals in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. 

COASST

The Coastal Observation and Survey Team program provides information on seabird population trends by gathering data on seabird mortality. Through provision of long-term baseline data influences on species distribution, abundance, and mortality may be distinguished.

2010 Deep Sea Coral Expedition

A NOAA research vessel will conduct surveys in the OCNMS and along deep water regions of California between Cordell Bank, Gulf of the Farallones, and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries. The goals for the cruise include surveying deep sea coral and sponge communities and includes investigating inside and outside NOAA Essential Fish Habitats, characterizing the distribution and abundance of deep sea corals, establishing baseline water quality conditions as it relates to deep sea corals.

Area to be Avoided (International Maritime Organization)

The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS), designated in May 1994, worked with the U.S. Coast Guard to request the International Maritime Organization (IMO) designate an Area to be Avoided (ATBA) on the Olympic Coast. The IMO defines an ATBA as "a routing measure comprising an area within defined limits in which either navigation is particularly hazardous or it is exceptionally important to avoid casualties and which should be avoided by all ships, or certain classes of ships."

This ATBA was adopted in December 1994 by the Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO, "in order to reduce the risk of marine casualty and resulting pollution and damage to the environment of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary." The ATBA went into effect in June 1995 and advises operators of vessels carrying petroleum and/or hazardous materials to maintain a 25-mile buffer from the coast. Since that time, OCNMS has created an education and monitoring program with the goal of ensuring the successful implementation of the ATBA.

Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary: http://olympiccoast.noaa.gov/

Olympic Coast 2008 Condition Report: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/condition/ocnms/abstract.html

OCNMS Sanctuary Advisory Council: http://olympiccoast.noaa.gov/involved/sac/sac_welcome.html