Monitoring and Assessments

Coastal and inland communities rely on NCCOS for an understanding of threats to their environmental resources. Our products and services help communities ensure the security of their water supplies, the safety of local fishing and shellfish industries, the health of their people, and the strength of their coastal and lakefront tourism. Primary stressors—such as harmful algal blooms, chemical contaminants, nutrients, and pathogens—have been reported in every state and are increasingly affecting communities and economies. Chemical contaminants, hypoxic conditions, and the toxins produced by harmful algal blooms, for example, threaten human and animal health and can cripple local and regional economies by contaminating drinking water, closing fisheries, discouraging tourism, and lowering property values.