The NOAA MPA Inventory (v2020) is a comprehensive catalog that provides detailed information for existing marine protected areas in the United States. The inventory provides geospatial boundary information (in polygon format) and classification attributes that seek to define the conservation objectives, protection level, governance and related management criteria for all sites in the database. The comprehensive inventory of federal, state and territorial MPA sites provides governments and stakeholders with access to information to make better decisions about the current and future use of place-based conservation. NOTE that this data layer represents IUCN MPAs only. IUCN MPAs are those sites that meet the IUCN definition of protected area as published in 2019 guidelines: 'A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the longterm conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values'.