The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary: the federal rules and the 2025 Blueprint.

Designation and management

NOAA states that the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was designated on 16 November 1990, following a series of boat groundings on the Keys' coral reefs. Wikipedia (secondary) gives 28 December 1990 instead. NOAA's date is the authority's own, and the presidential signing statement shows the act was signed in November 1990.

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) states that the sanctuary is managed jointly by NOAA, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the DEP, with advice from a community Sanctuary Advisory Council.

How big it is

Published figures for the sanctuary's area differ:

• about 2,900 square nautical miles, from the US Commerce Department and Florida DEP;
• 2,896, from NOAA's 2011 condition report;
• 2,600, from the 1990 signing statement;
• 2,800, from the University of Florida.

We did not confirm that every source uses the same unit. NOAA's current page gives a figure in statute square miles that may reflect the 2025 boundary expansion. We could not confirm which figure is current.

Where the rules are

The sanctuary's regulations are in 15 CFR part 922, subpart P. Section 922.163 applies across the whole sanctuary, and section 922.164 adds rules for particular areas; where areas overlap, both apply. The subpart in its revised form took effect on 1 July 1997. The version of 922.163 we read, on Cornell's Legal Information Institute, shows amendments up to 2023.

Sanctuary-wide rules that affect divers

Florida has its own rule as well. A search summary of Florida Administrative Code rule 68B-6.003 describes it as barring touching living or dead coral, including standing on it, within the listed ecological reserves and Sanctuary Preservation Areas. We could not confirm the rule's wording.

The 2025 Restoration Blueprint

NOAA released the Restoration Blueprint final rule and its record of decision on 15 January 2025. It was published in the Federal Register on 17 January 2025 as document 2025-00496. Under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the rule takes effect after 45 days of continuous session of Congress.

Federal and state waters: a reported split

NOAA's Blueprint FAQ explains that under the same process the Governor of Florida may certify a regulation as unacceptable, in which case it does not take effect in state waters. Keys Weekly reported on 12 March 2026 that Governor Ron DeSantis used that power in March 2025. As a result, the report says, the Blueprint did not take effect in state waters, while the unaltered rule took effect in federal waters, about 40 percent of the sanctuary, on 5 March 2025. That is a press report; we did not find NOAA's own notice of the effective date.

What the Blueprint adds

NOAA's FAQ lists new sanctuary-wide rules, including:

• a ban on feeding fish, including sharks, from a vessel or while diving;
• a ban on abandoning vessels or harmful materials; and
• a duty to report a grounding within 24 hours and remove the vessel within 72 hours.

The same FAQ says anchoring will be banned in all Sanctuary Preservation Areas by 2027, with moorings required, and that large vessels must use dedicated large-vessel moorings from 2027. The FAQ does not say how these rules apply after the state's veto, which on the press report above would leave them in force in federal waters only. Because the copy of 922.163 we read shows amendments only to 2023, we could not confirm how the Blueprint changed the codified text in federal waters.

Shipwrecks

Rule 922.163(a)(9) protects the sanctuary's historical resources, including shipwreck artefacts. For the wider US law on wrecks, including the Abandoned Shipwreck Act 1987 and the Sunken Military Craft Act 2004, see US wreck law.

Conduct guidance

NOAA also publishes advice for responsible divers in the sanctuary, covering contact with the reef, buoyancy and gear, and marine life. It is summarised on protecting reefs and marine life.