Abstract
The New Hampshire and Southern Maine Ocean Uses Atlas Project is an innovative partnership between NOAA's Marine Protected Areas Center and the University of New Hampshire’s Coastal Response Resource Center. This project fills a critical information gap in response efforts and ocean management by mapping, for the first time, the full range of significant human uses of the ocean in state and federal waters off of the coast of New Hampshire and southern Maine. Spatial data for nearly 30 ocean uses were gathered during a participatory mapping workshop convened with regional ocean use experts. The resulting atlas data provides baseline information regarding the location and extent to which the ocean environment is used for non-consumptive, fishing, and industrial and military activities. The results of this project can be accessed online and include individual use maps, sector aggregate use maps, and downloadable GIS data.