Habitat Blueprint: West Hawaii Focus Area

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The Habitat Blueprint provides a forward-looking framework for NOAA to think and act strategically across programs and with partner organizations to improve coastal and marine habitats for fisheries, marine life, and coastal communities. This layer outlines the Habitat Blueprint project boundary for a portion of the west coast of Hawaii Island (Big Island).

The leeward (west) side of Big Island is known for white sandy beaches and coral reefs that make it a popular destination for snorkeling, diving, and fishing. The region contains a variety of ecosystems including watersheds, Anchialine pool systems, dry-land forest, and coral reefs. There are several species of concern in the area that are important to Hawaii's economy, culture, and environment. For example, South Kohala contains one of the longest contiguous coral reefs in the state. Nearly a quarter of the corals and fish that live along this coast are found nowhere else in the world. Endangered or threatened species found in this area include Hawaiian monk seals, humpback whales, false killer whales, and green sea turtles (honu). The South Kohala district is one of the fastest growing areas on the Big Island and development is on the rise. Land uses include resort areas and very popular beaches. This means striking a delicate balance between the needs of humans and those of the natural resources. West Hawaii's natural resources are also threatened by land-based pollution and sediment, aquarium fishing, drought, fires, and invasive species.

For further information, please see: https://www.habitatblueprint.noaa.gov/habitat-focus-areas/west-hawaii/

Data and resources

GeoServer

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PacIOOS: NOAA Habitat Blueprint West Hawaii Habitat Focus Area

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Related URL

NOAA Habitat Blueprint: Habitat Focus Area: West Hawaii

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Research Organization Registry (ROR) Identifier

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OGC-WFS

Open Geospatial Consortium Web Feature Service (WFS). Supported WFS versions include 1.0.0, 1.1.0, and 2.0.0. Supported output formats include CSV, GeoJSON,…

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Research Organization Registry (ROR) Identifier

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Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Service (WMS). Supported WMS versions include 1.1.1 and 1.3.0. Supported map formats include AtomPub, GeoRSS, GeoTIFF, GIF,…

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Additional information

Date (creation)	2016-01-25
Date (issued)	2016-01-25
Date (revision)	2016-01-25
Status	onGoing
Update frequency	asNeeded
Metadata language	en
License	The data may be used and redistributed for free but is not intended for legal use, since it may contain inaccuracies. Neither the data Contributor, University of Hawaii, PacIOOS, NOAA, State of Hawaii nor the United States Government, nor any of their employees or contractors, makes any warranty, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness, of this information.
Source metadata	ISO 19115 XML
Last updated	2026-11-04
Created	2026-11-04
API	package_show