Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-110

§1421f–2 Marine Mammal Health Monitoring and Analysis Platform (health Map)

Title 16 › CHAPTER 31 — MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION › SUBCHAPTER V — MARINE MAMMAL HEALTH AND STRANDING RESPONSE › § 1421f–2

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Within one year after December 23, 2022, the Secretary must create a marine mammal health monitoring and analysis platform called Health MAP. NOAA will run it with help from the Interior Department and the Marine Mammal Commission. Health MAP must be added to the Observation System, be available on its web portal, and work with other national or research data systems when practical. The platform’s goals are to help different kinds of scientists share data and research; make marine mammal health, stranding (animals washed up or stuck), entanglement, and mortality data available quickly and over time; spot where and when problems happen; track both deadly and less obvious health effects; improve teamwork and forecasting of events that affect animals and ecosystems; quickly share strandings that could affect human health (for example, from harmful algal blooms); provide easy visual displays for public education; and help make an ocean health index that uses marine mammal data. Health MAP must combine in‑water, remote, and other health, stranding, and mortality data, including visualizations and metadata, from stranding networks, federal, State, local, and Tribal governments, private partners, and universities. It must make data easier to share among network participants, scientists, managers, and the public across regions and disciplines, and provide national and regional web portals. The Secretary must set rules and standards for reporting, for promptly sending data to Health MAP, for keeping data publicly available in a timely and ongoing way, and for adding other relevant data as needed. NOAA will keep the platform updated with input from the Interior Secretary and the Marine Mammal Commission. The Secretary may accept gifts and donations to help carry out this work; money gifts go into the Department of Commerce account and can be used only in the amounts and when provided in advance in appropriations Acts.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §1421f–2

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general

Not later than 1 year after December 23, 2022, the Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior and the Marine Mammal Commission, shall—

(1)establish a marine mammal health monitoring and analysis platform (referred to in this chapter as the “Health MAP”);

(2)incorporate the Health MAP into the Observation System; and

(3)make the Health MAP—

(A)publicly accessible through the web portal of the Observation System; and

(B)interoperable with other national data systems or other data systems for management or research purposes, as practicable.

(b)Purposes

The purposes of the Health MAP are—

(1)to promote—

(A)interdisciplinary research among individuals with knowledge and experience in marine mammal science, marine mammal veterinary and husbandry practices, medical science, and oceanography, and with other marine scientists;

(B)timely and sustained dissemination and availability of marine mammal health, stranding, entanglement, and mortality data;

(C)identification of spatial and temporal patterns of marine mammal mortality, disease, and stranding;

(D)evaluation of marine mammal health in terms of mortality, as well as sublethal marine mammal health impacts;

(E)improved collaboration and forecasting of marine mammal and larger ecosystem health events;

(F)rapid communication and dissemination of information regarding marine mammal strandings that may have implications for human health, such as those caused by harmful algal blooms; and

(G)increased accessibility of data in a user friendly visual interface for public education and outreach; and

(2)to contribute to an ocean health index that incorporates marine mammal health data.

(c)Requirements

The Health MAP shall—

(1)integrate in situ, remote, and other marine mammal health, stranding, and mortality data, including visualizations and metadata, collected by marine mammal stranding networks, Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments, private partners, and academia; and

(2)be designed—

(A)to enhance data and information availability, including data sharing among stranding network participants, scientists, and the public within and across stranding network regions;

(B)to facilitate data and information access across scientific disciplines, scientists, and managers;

(C)to facilitate public access to national and regional marine mammal health, stranding, entanglement, and mortality data, including visualizations and metadata, through the national and regional data portals of the Observation System; and

(D)in collaboration with, and with input from, States and stranding network participants.

(d)Procedures and guidelines

The Secretary shall establish and implement policies, protocols, and standards for— (1)

(2)promptly transmitting health data from the stranding networks and other appropriate data providers to the Health MAP;

(3)disseminating and making publicly available data on marine mammal health, stranding, entanglement, and mortality data in a timely and sustained manner; and

(4)integrating additional marine mammal health, stranding, or other relevant data as the Secretary determines appropriate.

(e)Consultation

The Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall maintain and update the Health MAP in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior and the Marine Mammal Commission.

(f)Acceptance of donations

(1)In general

For the purposes of carrying out this section, the Secretary may solicit, accept, receive, hold, administer, and use gifts, devises, and bequests without any further approval or administrative action.

(2)Monetary donations

A monetary gift, devise, or bequest accepted by the Secretary under paragraph (1) shall be credited as discretionary offsetting collections to the currently applicable appropriation, account, or fund of the Department of Commerce and shall be made available for such purposes only to the extent and in the amounts provided in advance in appropriations Acts.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 1421f–2

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110