Research and Monitoring

coral and fish

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has research projects in place to study the effectiveness of its marine zones and the health of its marine resources. The sanctuary also runs long-term monitoring programs to document changes in reef and habitat health over time.

These long-term monitoring programs provide sanctuary managers with a big picture view of the health of the sanctuary and how it may be changing. By examining long-term trends in ecosystem health, managers can make scientifically sound decisions on how to best protect the sanctuary and determine the effectiveness of those strategies.