National Coastal Condition Report II

EPA has released the National Coastal Condition Report II, the second in a series of environmental assessments of U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes. Based upon four years of sound, consistent monitoring data from 23 states, the information in the report serves as a continuing foundation for EPA's efforts to protect, manage, and restore coastal ecosystems. EPA researchers worked with these states to better help them use consistent indicators, protocols and probablilty designs for assessing local coastal conditions.

More than half of the U.S. population lives near coastal waters, which include estuaries, coastal wetlands, coral reefs, and mangrove forest areas. These critically important habitats provide spawning grounds, nurseries, shelter and food for finfish, shellfish, birds, and other wildlife, as well as nesting, resting, feeding, and breeding habitat for 85% of waterfowl and other migratory birds. With coastal populations increasing by approximately 3,600 people per day, these highly productive and fragile areas need careful management and protection.

This second edition of the National Coastal Condition Report builds on the first edition released in 2001 by adding data from all of the Northeast coast, West Coast and Puerto Rico, to cover 100% of the coastal waters in the mainland United States. The next report in the series will include Alaska and Hawaii.

Based upon recent data, the report concludes that the condition of the nation's coastal waters is fair and is essentially the same as the initial report in 2001. The report also makes the following assessments of regional coastal conditions:

The Southeast is good;
The Gulf of Mexico and the West are fair;
The Great Lakes are fair to poor; and
The Northeast and Puerto Rico are poor.

For more detailed information as access to the full report, see the National Coastal Condition Reports Web site.

For more information on EPA's ongoing coastal research efforts, please visit the following programs:

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National Coastal Condition Report II

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