Assistance program
Marine Sanctuary Program
$140.2 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Commerce, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 11.429
- What it does
- National marine sanctuaries conduct and support monitoring programs tailored to the information needs of each sanctuary. These programs target a wide array of topics involving natural processes, human influences on water, habitat, living resources and maritime archaeological resources. Research projects within the sanctuary system also allow scientists to address information needs that are not recognized through site characterization and monitoring.
- Who benefits
- Financial assistance is made for a public purpose. The ultimate beneficiary is the public. The scholarship program benefits individuals who do not have the financial means of pursuing graduate level studies and, in turn, ensures that women and minorities are representative in the areas supported by the scholarship program.
- Who applies
- Agreements to solicit private donations may only be made with nonprofit organizations.
- Authorized by
- Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972
- National Marine Sanctuaries Amendments Act of 2000
- National Marine Sanctuaries Preservation Act of 1996
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments