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National Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Impact Report 2025

A year of progress for America's marine sanctuaries

The work the Foundation funded, the partnerships it built, and the places it protected — measured in sea turtles, sanctuary acreage, students reached, and shipwrecks documented.

By the numbers

The headline measures of the Foundation's 2025 fiscal year.

620,000 sq mi
Of ocean and Great Lakes protected through the National Marine Sanctuary System
$3.4M
Distributed through the Sanctuary Community Fund to local stewardship projects
18 sites
National Marine Sanctuaries the Foundation supports across the country
46 grants
Awarded this year to community-led conservation, science, and education projects

Where the work happens

Sanctuary impact, mapped

Foundation-funded projects layered onto the National Marine Sanctuary System. Filter by program area, sanctuary, or fiscal year.

Explore the sanctuary discovery map →
ArcGIS dashboard placeholder

Foundation impact dashboard

The redesign embeds the Foundation's ArcGIS Online dashboard here — fully responsive, keyboard-navigable, and announceable to screen readers. Filters drive both the map and the metric cards above.

Pilot demo — embeds the live ArcGIS Online item at launch.

Where the funding went

The Foundation organizes its work around three mission areas. Each translates donor support into action on the water.

Conservation & restoration

Habitat restoration, derelict-fishing-gear removal, and species recovery work alongside NOAA sanctuary staff and local partners — from coral nurseries in the Florida Keys to kelp restoration on the West Coast.

12 active restoration projects

Learn more →

Science & technology

Research grants, AUV deployments, and citizen-science programs that produce the evidence base sanctuary managers need — and the stories that move policy.

24 research grants funded

Learn more →

Education & outreach

Classroom curricula, teacher fellowships, sanctuary photo ambassadors, and the Blue Beacon Series — building the next generation of ocean stewards.

85,000+ students reached

Learn more →

Sanctuary highlights

  • Sanctuary

    Florida Keys

    7,100 sq mi of coral-reef habitat under active restoration

  • Sanctuary

    Monterey Bay

    Five whale species protected under the year-round vessel-strike reduction zone

  • Sanctuary

    Thunder Bay

    100+ shipwrecks documented and protected in the Great Lakes

  • Sanctuary

    Hawaiian Islands

    1,200+ humpback whales monitored each winter season

What's next

Help us do more in 2026

Every project on this page exists because someone gave. Your contribution funds the next year of protection, science, and education across the National Marine Sanctuary System.