NOAA Sanctuaries

Meet our Steward Spotlight, Jaxine! 🐦 Jaxine worked with seabird data to help Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary understand the local ecosystem.

There are so many ways to get involved in your national marine sanctuary system! Learn about in-person or virtual volunteering opportunities at sanctuaries.noaa.gov/involved/.

#CitizenScienceMonth #Volunteer #MarineConservation

1 month ago | [YT] | 3

NOAA Sanctuaries

April is a time to celebrate the many ways people can make a difference, from #EarthDay 🌎 and #NationalVolunteerWeek 🤝 to #CitizenScienceMonth! 🌱

Across the National Marine Sanctuary System, volunteers play an important role in helping protect America’s underwater parks through hands-on stewardship, community science, and public engagement. Every year, people across the country give their time, curiosity, and skills to help care for America’s underwater parks.

💙 In 2025 alone, 6,806 volunteers supported citizen science in the National Marine Sanctuary System, contributing 36,748 hours to projects that help answer real-world scientific questions! Whether you want to join a one-day event, contribute sightings from your phone, or get involved in an ongoing restoration effort, there are many ways to make a difference. 🤲

🌊 Explore some opportunities across different regions of the U.S. National Marine Sanctuary System in our latest webstory: sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/2026/get-involved-in-you….

For more #EarthMonth content from @NOAA, visit: www.noaa.gov/earth-day.

📸: Nick Zachar/NOAA; Brent Grossman; Lee First/Get Into Your Sanctuary photo contest
#EarthIsBlue #CitizenScience #Volunteering #EarthMonth #VolunteerMonth #EarthDayNOAA

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1 month ago | [YT] | 3

NOAA Sanctuaries

It is #InternationalBeaverDay! 🦫

One of the most notable mammals in Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary is the American beaver. With webbed feet and a waterproof coat of thick, brown fur, they are well-adapted to living in and around water. Primarily nocturnal, they are not easily spotted in the sanctuary, but their activity makes their presence known. 🪵 They use trees, sticks, grass, and other debris to make dams in streams, which creates wetland habitat. They live in lodges, or large round structures that they build from sticks. 🪾

Learn more about these critters: sanctuaries.noaa.gov/earthisblue/beavers-of-mallow…

📸: Courtesy of Angela Genito, Maryland DNR
#EarthIsBlue #Beavers #BeaverDay #PotomacRiver

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NOAA Sanctuaries

We are still celebrating #SealAndSeaLionWeek! Wishing you could get up close and personal, but still want to follow wildlife viewing guidelines? Take a virtual dive with sea lions in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary!

Dive in by visiting: sanctuaries.noaa.gov/vr/channel-islands/sea-lion-e….

#EarthIsBlue #SeaLions #Seals #Pinnipeds

2 months ago | [YT] | 4

NOAA Sanctuaries

March is #SeagrassAwarenessMonth! 🌿 Did you know that seagrasses are the only flowering plants that thrive fully submerged in marine environments? 🌊 Learn about the "lungs of the sea" found in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in this week's Earth Is Blue video!

To learn more about seagrass, visit floridakeys.noaa.gov/plants/seagrass.html

#EarthIsBlue #SeagrassAwareness #Seagrass #FloridaKeys

2 months ago | [YT] | 1

NOAA Sanctuaries

The ocean is more than just shades of blue...especially in Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary! 🪸🐠🐚🐡⚓️🌊🐙🌅🦭🪼🦀

Designated on this day in 2025, it became the 18th national marine sanctuary, and the largest in the National Marine Sanctuary System. The sanctuary encompasses 582,570 square miles of Pacific Ocean waters in Hawaiʻi, providing protection to nationally significant natural, cultural, and historical resources while bringing opportunities for research, community engagement, and education and outreach activities.

🌈 All year long, we will be highlighting the 🎨 #SanctuarySwatch palettes from across your National Marine Sanctuary System as we celebrate the site's anniversaries. Stay tuned to catch all 18 swatches!

📸: Greg McFall/NOAA
#EarthIsBlue #WildSanctuaries #ColorPalette #Palette

2 months ago | [YT] | 8

NOAA Sanctuaries

Happy Anniversary to Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary!

The seascape of Papahānaumokuākea is like no other place on Earth and we wanted the site's poster to reflect that! 🎨 Its great cultural significance to Kānaka ʻŌiwi is represented through the art of wayfinding and stars at sunrise over Mokumanamana. It is abundant in apex predators like sharks and jacks, endemic species like the īlio holo i ka uaua and masked angelfish, and seabirds filling the skies. Papahānaumokuākea also holds tribute to a rich maritime history, including U.S. Navy aircraft, the Battle of Midway as represented through the USS Yorktown, and a try pot once used in commercial whaling to boil whale blubber into oil.

Check out the poster (both sides!) and learn more about this incredible place: sanctuaries.noaa.gov/posters/papahanaumokuakea/.

🎨: Matt McIntosh/NOAA
#EarthIsBlue #Poster #SaveSpectacular

2 months ago | [YT] | 8

NOAA Sanctuaries

🌊 Meet the team working to research and disentangle humpback whales in the waters of Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary in our latest Stories From the Blue: Saving Koholā! It will be premiering TODAY at 10 AM EST.

🐋 Saving Koholā offers a rare and intimate look at the team who monitors and disentangles humpback whales that migrate to these waters to mate and give birth. Entanglement in marine debris remains a major global threat to marine mammals, often leading to injury, starvation, or death.

💙 This film documents the high-stakes work of responding to these incidents, from tracking, approaching, and disentangling whales from dangerous debris. Come along as we follow the response team and capture the urgency, precision, and passion that define this critical conservation work. The film raises public awareness about marine mammal entanglement while honoring the deep cultural and ecological connection Native Hawaiians hold with these migratory giants.

All imagery of whales and response efforts were taken under the authority of NOAA Fisheries permit nos. 18786 and 24359 (Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program), 21476-01 (University of Hawaii Marine Mammal Research Program), and 20311 and 25754 (NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center).

#EarthIsBlue #StoriesFromTheBlue #WorldFisheriesDay #HawaiianIslands

2 months ago | [YT] | 9

NOAA Sanctuaries

What happens to debris in our waterways? ♳ Researchers in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary are wrapping up a multi-year study, “From Watershed to Whales,” to better understand how microplastics disperse, where they come from, and where they end up in marine ecosystems. 💧

Learn more in our latest #NoteFromTheField: sanctuaries.noaa.gov/notes/2026/following-micropla….

📸: Chad King/NOAA
#EarthIsBlue #MontereyBay #Watershed

2 months ago | [YT] | 8

NOAA Sanctuaries

Today is #WorldWetlandsDay! 🌾 Also known as a beaver national holiday. 🦫

Beaver activity in Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary creates unique wetland habitat. In a cycle that lasts many years, they will move up and down the streams that flow into the sanctuary and create dams, flooding different areas and drying out others. A beaver saw flowing water and thought..."absolutely not". ❌

Learn more about wetlands today: sanctuaries.noaa.gov/mallows-potomac/science/ecolo….

📸: Matt McIntosh/NOAA
#EarthIsBlue #Beaver #Wetlands #River

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