The Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provides national leadership, strategic direction and guidance to state and territory coastal programs and estuarine research reserves.

We work with state and territory coastal resource managers in a variety of ways. We foster knowledge sharing, promote research and pursue innovative management strategies and techniques. We are working with partners to develop a scientifically-based, comprehensive national system of marine protected areas (MPA's). Through NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program we support effective management and sound science to protect, sustain and restore coral reef ecosystems.

Our activities are mandated by three articles of legislation: the Coastal Zone Management Act, MPA Executive Order, and Coral Reef Conservation Act. The Office is composed of six divisions: Coastal Programs, Estuarine Reserves, National Policy and Evaluation, Business Management, MPA Center, and the Coral Program.

The MPA Center has created a new interactive online mapping tool that, for the first time, allows users to view boundaries and access data for more than a thousand marine protected areas (MPAs) in the United States.

Coastal Zone and NERRS managers are featured in new OCRM video interview series, America's Coasts, View from the States, on NOS Website. Here they talk about effects of climate change in their states.