In 2007 the NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research (CSCOR) awarded a grant to NOAA GLERL and a team of partners to study the ongoing effects of multiple stressors on the Saginaw Bay ecosystem. This supplemental issue of the Journal of Great Lakes Research provides an updated picture on the state of the Bay at a time when the ratification of the 2012 updated Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement provides a new catalyst for action, and continued funding under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative offers hope that actions pursuant to the new Agreement can be accomplished. Additionally, we invited several other researchers to submit papers on their Saginaw Bay-related studies to provide information on topics that were not included in the CSCOR project.