NPS worked internationally to share expertise and knowledge with others and to improve the level of protection afforded coral reef parks in the United States and elsewhere. Like all of the 375 sites in the National Park System, the nine parks with coral reef resources offer interpretive or educational programs. Activities range from publications, video presentations, and underwater trails to extensive curriculum-based education programs. Among these are the much acclaimed reef-oriented puppet theater for schools and park visitors developed by the Virgin Islands National Park and the underwater interpretive trails established at Virgin Islands National Park and Buck Island Reef National Monument. NPS had also sponsored numerous training opportunities for marine protected area managers from outside the United States to promote regional capacity for coral reef management.
National parks serve as laboratories for conducting research on coral reef ecosystems.
Early research at both Biscayne and Dry Tortugas National Parks revealed the level of human impact to reefs due to recreational diving and fishing and pioneered the use of reef mooring buoys and designated ship anchorages to reduce impact to reefs. NPS currently administers and coordinates research on coral reefs with many other government agencies and universities on topics ranging from long-term ecosystem monitoring to the specific effects of coral diseases, water quality, fisheries harvest, and species interactions. Although the coral reef resources within the National Park System receive protection as national parks, they are continually subjected to stress and damage from recreational use, environmental pollution, anchor damage, and ship and boat groundings. For example, Biscayne National Park suffers more than 170 boat and ship groundings yearly. To reverse the widespread destruction to seagrass beds and coral reefs, NPS has taken the lead in applying Natural Resource Protection Act authorities to recover damages for application to restoration activities from negligent boaters and shipping companies.