Marine microbial genomics plays a critical role in enabling NOAA to satisfy its mission of Environmental Stewardship.  Specifically, it plays a role in NOAA's goals of sustaining healthy coasts, building sustainable fisheries, and recovering protected species.  Microbial genomics provides NOAA with new opportunities to effectively address the challenge of improving the health and productivity of oceans, predicting ecosystem changes, and providing fundamental information for use in improving management of fisheries and coastal habitats.  To accomplish these objectives, NOAA supports peer-reviewed intra- and extramural research, education, and outreach in the area of genome-enabled science to study and monitor marine microbiota.  The goals of these efforts are to assess the levels and effects of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, microalgae, and parasites on the health of coastal ecosystems and natural resources, and to discover and characterize novel marine natural products, drugs and processes and employ them in a myriad of important applications.