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Coastal wetlands—including marshes, mangroves, and swamps—provide critical benefits to our planet. They clean our water, protect us from floods, and provide habitat for countless fish and wildlife.

But these valuable habitats are quickly disappearing. Nearly 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands are lost in the United States each year to development, draining, erosion, and sinkage. That’s close to seven football fields every hour.

The NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation works to protect and restore our coastal wetlands and the benefits they provide. With the help of our partners, we’ve restored nearly 50,000 acres of wetland habitat since 2008. Our work helps boost fish populations, recover threatened and endangered species, and support resilient coastal ecosystems and communities.