"Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary's research program focuses on and supports scientific investigations that improve our understanding of the Sanctuary's marine ecosystems and historical and cultural resources in order to provide managers with the information necessary to make informed decisions…."
- from the Mission Statement, Science Framework for the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, January 9, 2003.

Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary's remote location, fortuitous combination of physical and biological features, and federal protection make it an excellent place to conduct scientific investigations. The OCNMS research program strives to advance our understanding of marine ecosystems by encouraging and supporting research in three key ways:

Integration - OCNMS can facilitate communication among the many current research projects happening in Sanctuary waters. By doing so, we can avoid duplication of efforts, increasing everyone's efficiency, and we can identify the "data gaps" - areas where more effort is needed.

Initiation - OCNMS encourages interested researchers to initiate new research projects that support the Sanctuary's mission of increasing our understanding of marine ecosystems. We can provide the necessary Permit Applications, inform interested researchers of current Regulations, and even offer some logistical or financial support. If you are interested in applying for ship time, field housing, or any other type of support, we suggest you submit a Request for Research Support form several months before your intended start time in order to allow us enough time to process and schedule your request.

Dissemination - We want to promote the healthy exchange of information and ideas in ways that benefit the scientific community. We can facilitate data dissemination of past and ongoing OCNMS research along with associated research from our partners and independent researchers, with their permission. We can provide access to relevant references that researchers may find useful; some can be downloaded directly from this website. Access to our reprint library is also available to researchers.

If you are interested in reading more about our research program, please click on the Scientific Framework. This document is used to guide the Sanctuary in prioritizing and implementing a sound research program.

Distribution and Abundance of Humpback Whales
(pdf format 7.8 MB)


For a printed copy of above document, contact Ed.Bowlby@noaa.gov