We are beginning to see climate-related impacts in many national marine sanctuaries, marine national monuments, and in the surrounding communities. Read more about the specific climate change impacts affecting each of our unique sanctuaries, as well as the full range of climate change impacts across the National Marine Sanctuary System.

An almost all-white brain coral, with a small amount of remaining pink in the bottom left-hand corner.

Climate Impacts Across the System

Across the sanctuary system, sites are experiencing the full range of climate change impacts, including sea level rise, ocean acidification, changes to weather patterns and oceanographic processes, shifting species, and more. Read more about each of these challenges here.

Purple and orange ochre sea stars piled up on a rocky intertidal outcropping in NOAA’s Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

National Marine Sanctuary Climate Change Impact Profiles

National marine sanctuaries and monuments must contend with rising water temperatures and sea levels, water that is more acidic and contains less oxygen, shifting species, and altered weather patterns and storms. While all of our sanctuaries and monuments must face these global effects of climate change, each is affected differently.