NOAA's Digital Coast provides the data, tools, and training that communities use to manage their coastal resources Geospatial data alone is not enough. For data to be truly useful, additional training, tools, and information are often required. The Digital Coast provides this complete package in one place for coastal officials.

The Digital Coast is a cost-effective resource for coastal communities. Through the Digital Coast, users can find the information they need to explore the implications of sea level rise, conduct risk and vulnerability assessments, develop community green infrastructure plans, and much more. The site also provides valuable case studies to highlight how data and tools available from the Digital Coast have been used to address coastal management issues.

The Digital Coast's success is driven in large part by content contributions from many trusted sources, including federal, state, and local government agencies, non-profit organizations, and the private sector. A strong partnership group also helps to validate the information provided through the Digital Coast, ensuring that it is helpful and relevant to coastal managers. These partner organizations have found that the Digital Coast provides a way to work together on initiatives that not only benefit their organizations, but can also have a big impact on efforts to protect coastal resources and communities.


For more information:
Digital Coast NOAA Coastal Services Center


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The law of the sea is a body of customs, treaties, and international agreements by which governments maintain order, productivity, and peaceful relations on the sea Notable in the development of the law of the sea are two international conventions signed in the latter half of the 20th Century. One, the United Nations Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone (1958), outlined the rights and responsibilities of States parties in their offshore waters. In 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea further outlined the role of States parties in their marine areas and beyond.

While the United States ratified the 1958 Convention, as of late 2011, it has not become a party to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. The United States recognizes that many of the principles in the 1982 Convention reflect customary international law; however, the U.S. is not bound by the agreement itself.

NOAA has a unique role in administering the law of the sea: Its nautical charts provide the scientifically derived baseline that marks the inner limit of the territorial sea and the outer limit of internal waters, such as bays and rivers. This determines where U.S. territorial waters begin for purposes of international law. The method of arriving at this baseline is described in the 1958 Convention and in the 1982 Convention.

The baselines, and thus the bounds, of offshore marine areas subject to jurisdiction are subject to ongoing revision due to shoreline changes such as accretion (addition of land) and erosion.

The location of maritime boundaries can have potentially far-reaching effects. As a result, NOAA works with other federal agencies, particularly the U.S. Department of State, to keep track of U.S. maritime boundaries and to represent such boundaries, where applicable, on U.S. navigational charts.


For more information:
Law of the Sea: History of the Maritime Zones under International Law

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While it's relatively common to spot unidentified dark or reddish patches on the surface of the ocean in coastal areas around the U.S., it's not always easy to discern by sight what the substance is that's creating the disturbance. Often, offshore patches of discolored water are the result of algal blooms or oil slicks.

Algal blooms occur when colonies of algae—simple ocean plants that live in the sea—grow out of control. While algal blooms come in many colors (and some have no color at all), they are popularly known as 'red tides' because some are deep red in color.

Oil slicks, on the other hand, are simply films of oil floating on top of the water. While some slicks may be a few inches thick, most are thinner than a human hair. They may form naturally, but they are often introduced by man in incidents ranging from refined fuels or crude oil spilled from a ship to larger events such as last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Oil sometimes emulsifies under certain conditions. Emulsified oil is a mixture of oil and water that often resembles chocolate mousse or pudding.

How do you tell the difference? It can be difficult. Even the experts can be fooled, especially when looking at the ocean from an aircraft.

Color. Oil can vary greatly in color, from the commonly expected black or dark brown, to red, orange, yellow, and even some more exotic colors. When oil becomes emulsified, its color becomes much lighter. For example, South Louisiana crude oil is generally a dark red, but appears bright red to orange when emulsified—as it did during the Deepwater Horizon spill. If the oil has a reddish hue, it may be mistaken for so-called "red tide." Once the emulsion breaks, the color reverts back to its normal dark color. Once an oil slick spreads out and becomes very thin, the color varies from grey to silver. It's easier to observe from a boat or a plane than it is from on the beach, but if you see a thin film that is rainbow-colored, you're looking at oil. However, other than rainbow sheen, both oil and algal blooms can have a large range in colors that are similar, and algal blooms often create sheens.

Odor. The most reliable difference is odor. Oil slicks nearly always have a characteristic petroleum smell. Algal blooms may have a strong smell as well, but the smell is distinctly different from that of the more-familiar smell of petroleum.

In the water or just on top? Algal blooms are mostly in the water column although often in the upper layers, but they may have a floating layer. Oil slicks are generally only floating on the surface. But certain oils may be naturally or chemically dispersed into the water column.

Nighttime Bioluminescence.: Oil isn't bioluminescent—it doesn't produce light—but some of the algae that form surface blooms do. The light comes from chemical reactions in the algal cells. So when it's dark out, the water may glow—especially when waves break. During the day, you can take some water into a very dark room, let your eyes adapt to the darkness for several minutes, and then swirl the container. A blue glow or individual flashes of light indicate bioluminescent algae. Keep in mind, though, that some red tide algae do not produce light.

Unsure? Sometimes it's best to leave it to the experts. If you think you see oil on the water, report it to the National Response Center at 1-800-424-8802.

For more information
What is a 'red tide?' (Ocean Fact)
Why do harmful algal blooms occur? (Ocean Fact)
What is Natural Resource Damage Assessment? (Ocean Fact)
How does oil impact marine life? (Ocean Fact)
Oil and Chemical Spill Incident News, NOAA's Office of Response & Restoration
Oil & Chemical Spills
Harmful Algal Blooms
Responding to Oil Spills (podcast)
Harmful Algal Blooms (podcast)
Oil in the Ocean (video)
Predicting Harmful Algal Blooms (video)

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The Earth’s outer crust is made up of a series of tectonic plates that move over the surface of the planet. In areas where the plates come together, sometimes volcanoes will form. Volcanoes can also form in the middle of a plate, where magma rises upward until it erupts on the sea floor, at what is called a “hot spot.”


The Hawaiian Islands where formed by such a hot spot occurring in the middle of the Pacific Plate. While the hot spot itself is fixed, the plate is moving. So, as the plate moved over the hot spot, the string of islands that make up the Hawaiian Island chain were formed.


The Hawaiian Islands form an archipelago that extends over a vast area of the North Pacific Ocean. The archipelago is made up of 132 islands, atolls, reefs, shallow banks, shoals, and seamounts stretching over 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) from the island of Hawaii in the southeast to Kure Atoll in the northwest.



For more information:
Hawaiian Archipelago, Coral Reef Information System
Seamounts and Hot Spots, New Millennium Observatory

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Water levels in the Great Lakes have long-term, annual, and short-term variations. Long-term variations depend on precipitation and water storage over many years. Annual variations occur with the changing seasons. There is an annual high in the late spring and low in the winter. These changes occur at a rate that can be measured in feet per month.

True tides, changes in water level caused by the gravitational forces of the sun and moon, do occur in a semi-diurnal (twice daily) pattern on the Great Lakes. Studies indicate that the Great Lakes spring tide, the largest tides caused by the combined forces of the sun and moon, is less than five centimeters (two inches) in height. These minor variations are masked by the greater fluctuations in lake levels produced by wind and barometric pressure changes.

Consequently, the Great Lakes are considered to be essentially non-tidal.

For more information:
Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services
Great Lakes Water Level Data
Great Lakes Online
Tide Predictions and Data Frequently Asked Questions
Tides Tutorial, NOS Education
What are Tides? - Diving Deeper audio podcast

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The ocean is the lifeblood of Earth, covering more than 70 percent of the planet's surface, driving weather, regulating temperature, and ultimately supporting all living organisms. Throughout history, the ocean has been a vital source of sustenance, transport, commerce, growth, and inspiration.

Yet for all of our reliance on the ocean, 95 percent of this realm remains unexplored, unseen by human eyes.

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research is leading efforts to explore the ocean by supporting expeditions to investigate and document unknown and poorly known areas of the ocean. These expeditions represent a bold and innovative approach by infusing teams of scientist-explorers with a "Lewis and Clark" spirit of discovery and equipping them with the latest exploration tools.

From mapping and describing the physical, biological, geological, chemical, and archaeological aspects of the ocean to understanding ocean dynamics, developing new technologies, and helping us all unlock the secrets of the ocean, NOAA is working to increase our understanding of the ocean realm.

For more information:
NOAA Ocean Explorer


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Lightering is the process of removing oil or other hazardous chemicals from a compromised vessel to another vessel to prevent oil from spilling into the surrounding waters.

Lightering is not possible in all oil spill scenarios. It depends on many factors including the type of oil that is spilled. As time passes, the oil can become more viscous, or thicker, and therefore more difficult to pump. This can, in turn, make lightering difficult, if not impossible. While there are benefits to removing oil in this way, there can also be accidents and spills that result from lightering.


Lightering is also used to transfer cargo between vessels of different sizes like a barge and a bulker or oil tanker to reduce the vessel's draft in order to enter port facilities.

For more information:

Office of Response and Restoration

Office of Coast Survey

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Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument preserves one of the most untouched areas of coral reef in the world.

The main difference between national marine sanctuaries and marine national monuments is the designation process and the laws under which they are established. Sanctuaries are designated by the Secretary of Commerce, through NOAA, under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA). The NMSA requires extensive public process, local community engagement, stakeholder involvement, and citizen participation, both prior to and following designation.

Monuments are designated by Presidential Proclamation, via the Antiquities Act of 1906. The Act is very simple, has changed little in more than a century, provides broad power to set aside public areas for protection, and requires no public process.

The NOS Office of National Marine Sanctuaries manages 13 national marine sanctuaries and one national marine monument.  At more than 140,000 square miles (362,598 square kilometers), Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is the largest protected area in the United States, stretching the length of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The Monument, co-managed with the State of Hawai’i and the Department of the Interior, was designated on June 15, 2006 by President George W. Bush under Presidential Proclamation 8031.

For more information:
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
NOAA Fisheries Marine National Monument Program

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Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) is the process that federal agencies like NOAA, together with the states and Indian tribes, use to evaluate the impacts of oil spills, HAZMAT incidents and hazardous waste sites, and ship groundings on natural resources both along the nation's coast and throughout its interior.

NOAA and these other entities, referred to collectively as natural resource trustees, work together to identify the extent of resource injuries, the best methods for restoring them, and the type and amount of restoration required.

NOAA's responsibilities in a NRDA include:

A preliminary assessment to determine whether any impacts have occurred. Scientists may collect data, review scientific literature, and use mathematical models to help predict the effects of the incident on trust resources. Injury assessment and restoration planning, during which NOAA quantifies the injuries through scientific and economic studies and then identifies potential restoration projects (e.g., beach and shoreline enhancements, creation of oyster reefs or other shellfish habitats, and programs to monitor the recovery of species and habitats). Restoration, which aims either to return the injured resources to their original condition, or, if that is not possible, to compensate the public for its losses. During this phase, the co-trustees work with the Responsible Party (the entity whose property or actions caused the injury), who pays for the assessment and restoration and often participates in restoration activities. In the event that the Responsible Party refuses to pay damages, NOAA and its co-trustees may file a lawsuit or submit a claim to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

For more information
NOAA's Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program (DARRP)
Gulf Spill Restoration
NOAA Office of Response and Restoration
Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund
Natural Resource Restoration

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As there is no reference that designates one specific shoreline as the “legal” shoreline, numbers for the length of the U.S. shoreline can vary depending on how the shoreline is defined. 

The NOAA figure was determined by hand in 1939-40 with a recording instrument on the largest-scale charts and maps available at that time. Shorelines of outer coast, offshore islands, sounds, bays, rivers, and creeks were included to the head of the tidewater or to a point where tidal waters narrow to a width of 100 feet. For the Great Lakes, the shoreline lengths were measured in 1970 by the International Coordinating Committee on Great Lakes Basic Hydraulic and Hydrologic Data.

The total length of tidal shoreline includes measurements of the coastal states as well as the outlying U.S. territories and possessions.

For more information:
NOAA Shoreline Website
The Coastline of the United States (pdf, 305kb)

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