NOAA names John Armor as Director of Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

October 2016

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today that John Armor has been selected as Director of NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), our nation's system of underwater parks. Mr. Armor has been acting director since May 2015.

"John brings to this position a dedication to protecting these special places and a great vision for how a system of protected ocean places can impact communities throughout the nation," said Russell Callender, Assistant Administrator for NOAA's National Ocean Service.

NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries serves as trustee for a network of underwater parks encompassing more than 620,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington State to the Florida Keys, and from Lake Huron to American Samoa. Currently, the network includes a system of 13 national marine sanctuaries and Papahānaumokuākea and Rose Atoll marine national monuments.

Mr. Armor has been with NOAA since 2000, serving as the program's national permitting coordinator, chief of the program's Conservation Policy and Planning Division and ONMS deputy director overseeing personnel, policy and administrative matters for the system.

Prior to coming to NOAA, Mr. Armor worked for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in the Fort Myers regional office. There, he worked to implement the State of Florida's wetland and estuarine protection and sovereign submerged lands programs.

Mr. Armor is a native of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, along the shores of Narragansett Bay where his passion for protecting special ocean places was born. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina, and a Master of Science degree in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Armor lives in Columbia, Maryland, with his wife, Trish, and their three children Ian, Collin, and Katelyn.