NOAA Adds 82 Sites to Marine Protected Areas List
Eighty of them were nominated by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the other two by the National Park Service.
The number of National Marine Protected Areas has risen by 82 sites, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced recently in a Federal Register notice. All but two of the new sites are in California and were nominated by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife; the other two were nominated by the National Park Service.
The MPA Center found them eligible for the national system and placed them on the List of National System MPAs, which now numbers about 1,700 sites in all. Sites in the national system are managed independently, but national system MPA managers collaborate regionally and nationally to conserve important natural and cultural resources. For more information about the national system, visit http://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov/nationalsystem/.
This latest round of nominations began Jan. 28, 2013, and the deadline for nominations was March 29.
The two National Park Service sites are the Padre Island National Seashore and the Redwood National Park.