NOAA is the nation’s steward of ocean resources. From assessing fish stock to exploring deep sea vents, NOAA strives to “protect, restore, and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through an ecosystem approach to management.” Expected outcomes include: • Healthy and productive coastal and marine ecosystems that benefit society. • A well informed public that acts as a steward of coastal and marine ecosystems.

Intracoastal Waterway, Charleston, SC. NOAA Photo Library

Related tasks are spread across all of NOAA’s line offices to some degree, especially in the NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Ocean Service, and NOAA Research line offices. Ecosystem-related NOAA partners located in the Carolinas include:

• NC Sea Grant (http://www.ncseagrant.org/)

• SC Sea Grant (http://www.scseagrant.org/)

• NOAA Undersea Research Center – Southeast Region (http://www.uncw.edu/nurc)

• National Center for Coastal Ocean Science (http://www.nccos.noaa.gov)

• Coastal Services Center (http://www.csc.noaa.gov)/

• National Estuarine Research Reserves:

o North Carolina (http://nerrs.noaa.gov/NorthCarolina/welcome.html)

o South Carolina – North Inlet/Winyah Bay (http://nerrs.noaa.gov/NorthInlet/welcome.html)

o South Carolina – Ace Basin (http://nerrs.noaa.gov/ACEBasin/welcome.html)

For Ecosystem related NOAA products and services, also visit the Ecosystem Goal Team Web Site

o NOAA Coastal Services Center (www.csc.noaa.gov) provides access to many environmental data sets and GIS tools

o SC GIS Portal (http://www.scgis.gov/)

o NC OneMap (http://www.nconemap.com/)

o North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ncgdap/index.html)

o NOAA/CSC Coastal Hazards Page for NC (http://www.csc.noaa.gov/products/nchaz/htm/hother.htm)

o USGS SC Coastal Erosion Study (http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/scarolina/index.html)

o Western Carolina University Coastal Hazards Inventory (http://coastalhazards.wcu.edu/libros/index.html)

o Sea level rise (http://www.cop.noaa.gov/stressors/climatechange/current/sea_level_rise.html)

o NCSU Water quality Group (http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/wqg/)-- resources page includes many links to related sites

o NC Division of Water Quality (http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/)

o SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (http://www.scdhec.net/environment/)

o USGS Water Resources of SC (http://sc.water.usgs.gov/) and NC (http://nc.water.usgs.gov/)

o USGS Water Resources of NC (http://nc.water.usgs.gov/)

o Earth 911 (http://southcarolina.earth911.org/usa/WaterQuality/index.asp) – click on state to get Beach Water Quality information

o NCCOS Restoration Monitoring guidelines (http://www.nccos.noaa.gov/ecosystems/estuaries/restoration_monitoring.html)

o South Carolina Oyster Restoration and Enhancement Program (SCORE) (coast.http://score.dnr.sc.gov/)-- community-based habitat restoration and monitoring program of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources co-funded by NOAA; community volunteers work with scientists to restore and monitor oyster habitat along South Carolina coast

o US EPA Restoration Project Inventory (http://yosemite.epa.gov/water/restorat.nsf/rpd-2a.htm?OpenPage) – map points to specific state projects

o Lionfish (http://www.ccfhr.noaa.gov/stressors/invasivespecies/Lionfish)

o Beach Vitex (http://www.beachvitex.org/)

o NBII Invasive Species Database for NC (http://invasivespecies.nbii.gov/states/ncarolina.html)

o NBII Invasive Species Database for SC (http://invasivespecies.nbii.gov/states/scarolina.html#maps)