This project was created to add a spatial component to the NOAA Sanctuary Watch website (https://sanctuarywatch.ioos.us). Finding and navigating to different sanctuaries was difficult because every link had to be read individually till you found the desired link. This was time consuming and a poor user experience. Using Leaflet and shapefiles files from https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/library/imast_gis.html, I was able to convert the shapefiles to .geojson files and use them to create a dictionary for all relevant information to create the map. This product may or may not still be in use on the NOAA Sanctuary Watch website.
Please feel free to interact with the map below:
(P.S. If the map tiles load slow it’s probably because I pay for the cheapest hosting possible.)
March 4, 2026