NOAA’s National Status and Trends (NS&T) Mussel Watch Program conducted regional pilot studies to assess the magnitude and distribution of contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) in shellfish and sediment from different coastal zones. In 2015, oyster and surficial sediment samples ...

Multiple indicators of water quality, sediment quality, and biological condition were used to assess the status of ecological condition of National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) sites in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia relative to a suite of corresponding ...

NOAA's Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) lists saltmarshes along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts as the most vulnerable habitat to oil spills. As a result of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig accident, more that 200 million gallons of crude oil ...

In June 2015, the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science conducted an assessment of the status of ecological condition of unconsolidated, soft-bottom habitat and overlying waters at 30 sites from 11 – 99 m depth in targeted shelf areas ...

Sample collection in the field faces many challenges including, but not limited to, the equipment and materials that can be brought safely into the field. Field teams will often reuse sample collection gear by cleaning it between sampling sites to ...

The defensibility of field sampling data collected in support of natural resource damage assessments and other environmental investigations depends on rigorous quality assurance and control both in the field and laboratory. One important step in field procedures is the cleaning ...

In 1999, the Chesapeake Bay Program completed a survey of existing data on chemical contaminants and the potential for bioeffects in 38 tidal river systems of Chesapeake Bay. This review led to the identification of 20 areas for which there ...

Pollution in the marine environment has the potential to negatively impact ecosystem health, including adverse effects on fisheries species. This can occur through direct impacts, food web effects and habitat degradation. Vieques is an island municipality of the Commonwealth of ...

This cruise report is a summary of a field survey conducted within two Great Lakes Region Areas of Concern (AOCs), Ashtabula River and Milwaukee Estuary, August 18 – 25, 2012. Synoptic sampling of multiple ecological indicators was conducted in the ...

This document provides an assessment of ecological condition, with an emphasis on soft-bottom habitats and overlying waters, along the U.S. continental shelf in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, from Anclote Key on the west coast of Florida to the Mississippi ...