Incident Response

The staff of Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary may be the first on-scene personnel responding to an emergency that might occur in sanctuary waters. These types of emergencies include such incidents as oil spills or airplane crashes.

Sanctuary staff help contact key federal, state, and local agencies; mobilize assets for response; and ensure that sensitive sanctuary resources are protected. Improving emergency preparedness and contingency planning remains one of the sanctuary program's higher priorities. These activities are coordinated by resource protection staff because of the close association and inter-relatedness to prevention, preparedness, injury assessment, and enforcement.

Click here to learn more about the National Marine Sanctuary System's incident response program.