WHAT IS THE PROCESS FOR CREATING 

SANDY HOOK BAY NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY?

The process is very clearly described at this NOAA webpage, but, in general terms, it consists of a public process of describing and formulating the  proposed NMS, to obtain as many stake holders endorsement letters as possible and to submit the nomination to NOAA. 

NOAA will perform initial review and if they think the nomination is viable they will enter it in the designation process. The entire process may take a number of years, or it may never make it through the chain. Whether the process will ultimately be successful or not, NMHA, as an experimental educational organization, looks at the early stages of the process as an educational exercise that will help all area stake holders in innovative thinking about our home's future.   

NMHA and its local collaborators are entirely focused on submitting the nomination and the endorsements in such a form that NOAA deems it sufficiently attractive to enter the national designation process, but only as an effort that has wide local support.  

These webpages describe the nomination design in more general terms while the latest draft of the nomination document is the most accurate description of the state of the art of the nomination process and design.   

For the latest version of the nomination document follow this link 

We welcome all comments on the nomination document.

To sample and compare completed nominations downloads for other NMS scroll to the bottom of this webpage.