"In the fall of 2008, graduate students from eight universities -- California State University Monterey Bay, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Connecticut, University of Hawai'i, University of Michigan, University of New Hampshire, University of South Florida, University of Washington -- participated in a 'Distributed Graduate Seminar' (DGS) at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California Santa Barbara. The goal of the semester-long seminar was to examine the role of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) in implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) at the sites that make up the National Marine Sanctuary system. Each university collaborated with one or more Sanctuaries to conduct a case study based on a core set of questions regarding EBM. The products of these case studies encompassed a wide-range of topics, including detailed summaries of existing management strategies and original quantitative analyses and tools for implementing EBM within sanctuary boundaries. The Sanctuary Program's important role as a facilitator of management action was an emergent property of the case studies. They also found that facilitating management actions and engagement of partners is effectively used by sanctuaries and more common than regulatory actions. In April 2009, NCEAS hosted a 'Synthesis Working Group' that brought together representative graduate students and faculty from seven of the eight universities and ONMS staff to examine their case studies and share findings and establish commonalities amongst all Sanctuaries. The following is a synthesis produced at the April meeting of the Seminar case study materials"--Executive summary.