National Ocean Exploration Act

[AI summary unavailable — showing source text] National Ocean Exploration Act This bill provides statutory authority for the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization Council and revises several programs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that support ocean and coastal mapping, hydrographic surveys, and spatial data collection. The bill revises the national ocean exploration program to require NOAA to provide guidance to federal and state agencies, and others, on data standards, protocols for accepting data, and coordination of data collection, compilation, processing, archiving, and dissemination for data relating to ocean exploration and characterization. It also directs NOAA to conduct education and outreach efforts to disseminate information to the public on the discoveries made by the ocean exploration program and coordinate with the outreach strategies of other domestic or international ocean mapping, exploration, and characterization initiatives. Additionally, the bill repeals the undersea research program of NOAA. It also modifies NOAA's ocean and coastal mapping program to include ecosystem approaches in decision-making for natural resource and habitat restoration, emergency r…