NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program

NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) is a cross-cutting program that brings together expertise from a wide array of NOAA programs and offices. In strong partnership with coral reef managers, the CRCP works to reduce harm to, and restore the health of, coral reefs, including deep-water corals, by addressing priority national threats and local management priorities through conservation activities.

The CRCP was established in 2000 to help fulfill NOAA's responsibilities under the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 (CRCA) and the Presidential Executive Order 13089 on Coral Reef Protection. The CRCP’s mission is to support effective management and sound science to preserve, sustain, and restore valuable coral reef ecosystems for future generations.

CRCP funds and conducts reef conservation activities by NOAA and its partners in the seven U.S. states and jurisdictions containing coral reefs (American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawai`i, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands), uninhabited islands including the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Pacific Remote Island Areas, and internationally, including the Pacific Freely Associated States. International efforts primarily focus on the regions of the Caribbean, Micronesia, Samoa and the Southwest Pacific, and the Coral Triangle.