U.S. Department of Commerce | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | National Marine Fisheries Service

NOAA 

HABITAT

CONSERVATION

The pressure is on. Development, climate change, and other 

stressors are causing coastal habitat degradation and loss around 

the country. One of the most alarming examples of this is 

happening in the Eastern United States where we’re losing 59,000 acres of 

coastal wetlands each year—that’s equal to 122 football fields a day.

Protecting and restoring habitat not only supports healthy natural 

resources but a strong economy as well. Consider this important 

example—commercial and recreational fishing activities generate 

$163 billion in sales in the United States and nearly 1.9 million jobs. 

Healthy habitat is essential to the reproduction, growth, and diversity 

of harvested fish and other marine life; we cannot sustain fish stocks 

without conserving habitat.

But it’s not just about fish. Healthy coastal habitat provides value to us 

in many ways, especially when more than half our country’s population 

lives in our coastal counties and many others like to visit. Did you know 

that wetlands buffer our coastal communities from storms—saving us 

more than $23 billion each year?

Finally, conserving healthy habitat is a task for many. To get the job done, 

we must work together with our federal, state, nongovernment, and 

private partners—and people like you. 

Vision www.habitat.noaa.gov

Healthy and self-sustaining 

coastal and marine habitats 

that support vital ecosystem 

functions, including abundant 

living marine resources, human 

uses, and resilient coastal 

communities.

Mission

To protect, restore, and 

promote stewardship of coastal 

and marine habitats.

U.S. Department of Commerce | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | National Marine Fisheries Service
“Climate change is real. It is here, and it is happening now, 

 in our backyards and around the globe.”

—Jane Lubchenco, PhD,

NOAA Administrator 

Our responsibility is to conserve coastal and marine habitat 

so that we—and future generations—can continue to 

enjoy the benefits of sustainable fisheries, resilient coastal 

communities, and a strong economy. For 2011, some of our biggest 

challenges include:

Protecting and Restoring Gulf Coast Habitat—

The Gulf of Mexico contributes tens of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy 

through its tourism and commercial and recreational fishing industries and is 

responsible for nearly one third of the seafood production for the continental 

United States.

We have been conserving habitat in the Gulf for 40 years and have led 

380 restoration projects. Since the Deepwater BP oil spill in April 2010, 

we have been working closely with federal and state partners on the 

Natural Resource Damage Assessment and will lead efforts to develop and 

implement a plan to restore the Gulf’s natural resources from the impacts of 

oil. For more information, visit www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov.

Conserving the Chesapeake Bay through Executive Order—

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the country, supporting 3,600 

species of plants, fish, and animals and producing about 500 million pounds 

of seafood per year.

Through our Chesapeake Bay Office, we have an important role in 

implementing priority actions to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay.

This includes advancing oyster recovery, ecosystem-based fisheries 

management, and monitoring of ecosystem conditions.

Conserving Habitat for Future Generations

—It’s What We Do

Restoring the Barrier 

Islands of Louisiana’s 

Barataria Bay

Barrier islands are the first line 

of defense against storms and 

hurricanes that threaten coastal 

communities. Bays are important 

habitat for commercial fish species, 

birds, sea turtles, and other wildlife.

Barataria Bay in Louisiana is facing 

many threats to its fragile barrier 

island habitat including sinking land, 

rising sea level, and erosion. Under 

the Coastal Wetlands Planning, 

Protection and Restoration Act, 

NOAA conducts large-scale projects 

that protect and restore barrier 

islands and their associated benefits. 

For the Barataria Bay project, 

NOAA partnered with the Louisiana 

Department of Natural Resources 

to re-establish approximately 1,100 

acres of beach, dune, and wetland 

habitat to an area severely affected 

by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 

experiencing one of the highest 

wetland loss rates in the country.

Making Way for 

Migrating Fish

For the first time in 42 years, young 

fish are able to make the journey 

past three hydroelectric dams on the 

Deschutes River in central Oregon 

and migrate to the Pacific Ocean 

thanks to the cooperative efforts of 

NOAA Fisheries, Portland General 

Electric, and the Confederated 

Tribes of the Warm Springs 

Reservation of Oregon.

NOAA was a partner in the 

engineering of a unique 273-foot 

underwater tower and fish collection 

station. It mimics the natural 

conditions of the river to attract fish 

into a collection facility where they 

are sorted by size and piped to a 

fish handling facility. They are then 

transported downstream to continue 

their migration to the sea.

Chinook salmon, steelhead, and 

kokanee (landlocked sockeye 

salmon) immediately began 

taking full advantage of the new 

travel agent created by the $108 

million project. The facility started 

operations in December 2009 

and within two hours had its first 

customers—two juvenile Chinook.

Protecting Essential Fish Habitat—

Essential fish habitat includes all types of aquatic habitat where fish breed, 

feed, or grow to maturity. Estuaries, for instance, provide habitat to more than 

68 percent of America’s commercial fish catch by value and for 80 percent of 

the recreational fish catch by weight.

We work with the regional fishery management councils to identify essential 

fish habitat and provide recommendations to federal agencies on how to 

avoid or minimize the adverse effects of their actions on the habitat of 

federally managed commercial or recreational fisheries. 

Building the Economy through the Recovery Act—

Healthy coastal and marine ecosystems are vital to coastal economies. In 2007, 

coastal counties contributed $7.9 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product 

and supported 69 million jobs.

We continue our role in supporting jobs and the economy using $167 million 

in Recovery Act funds for 50 high-priority, large-scale restoration projects 

around the country. When complete, these projects will restore more than 

8,700 acres of habitat, open more than 700 stream miles for fish passage, 

remove more than 850 metric tons of debris, rebuild shellfish habitat, and 

benefit nearby coral reefs by protecting 11,750 inland acres.

Preparing for Climate Change—

Healthy coastal habitat such as mangroves and wetlands absorb up to five 

times more atmospheric carbon dioxide than tropical forests. 

Our job is to promote conservation strategies such as natural shorelines that 

allow habitat to store carbon and adapt naturally to climate change. 

Chesapeake Bay Blue Heron

Re-establishing tidal flow in Bahia Grande, Texas.
 

Administration Priorities

•	 Implemented 50 large-scale restoration projects around the country using $167 million in funding from 

the President’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. So far, we’ve supported hundreds of jobs 

at projects that have restored more than 1,800 acres of habitat and opened more than 300 stream miles for 

fish passage.

•	 Completed a new strategy in 2010 in collaboration with other federal agencies to implement President 

Obama’s Executive Order to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay. 

•	 Supported the interagency Great Lakes Restoration Initiative by awarding $9.5 million in 2010 for nine 

projects throughout the Great Lakes Region. These projects will restore more than 700 acres of habitat 

and open more than 100 miles of river for fish passage.

Habitat Protection

•	 Protected nearly 980 million acres of fish habitat from impacts of fishing gear since 2000.

•	 Reviewed about 30,000 permit actions since 2005 to minimize adverse impacts to essential fish habitat.

•	 Helped open more than 1,000 stream miles through the hydropower licensing process.

•	 Achieved special designation in 2010 to protect 23,000 square miles of deepwater coral habitat off 

the southeastern U.S. coast.

Habitat Restoration

•	 Began the restoration planning process with state and federal partners to address the impacts of 

the Deepwater BP oil spill. 

•	 Restored 69,000 acres of habitat through 2,300 community-based restoration projects since 1996, inlcuding 

300 acres of oyster reefs.

•	 Conserved more than 8,000 acres of coastal wetlands in Louisiana since 1997. 

•	 Removed 200 dams and other barriers and opened more than 2,000 stream miles for fish passage since 1998.

•	 Helped settle 235 natural resource damage assessment cases by the end of 2010, generating more than 

$550 million to protect or restore thousands of acres of habitat.

Habitat Stewardship

•	 Engaged more than 232,000 volunteers in more than 1 million hours for habitat restoration since 2000.

•	 Reached an estimated 390,000 students and 17,500 teachers through the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office’s 

Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Program since 2002.

www.habitat.noaa.gov

May 2011

Habitat Conservation Progress Report

U.S. Department of Commerce | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | National Marine Fisheries Service