Coastal waters in the United States include estuaries, bays, sounds, coastal wetlands, coral reefs, intertidal zones, mangrove and kelp forests, seagrass meadows, and coastal ocean and upwelling areas (deep water rising to surface). Coastal habitats provide spawning grounds, nurseries, shelter, and food for finfish, shellfish, birds, and other wildlife. These coastal resources also provide nesting, resting, feeding, and breeding habitat for 75% of waterfowl and other migratory birds. Section 305(b) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report periodically on the condition of the nations coastal waters. As part of this process, coastal states provide valuable information about the condition of their coastal resources to EPA; however, because the individual states use a variety of approaches for data collection and evaluation, it has been difficult to compare this information among states or on a national basis. To better address questions about national coastal condition, EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed to participate in a multi-agency effort to assess the condition of the nations coastal resources. The agencies chose to assess condition using nationally consistent monitoring surveys to minimize the problems created by compiling data collected using multiple approaches. The results of these assessments are compiled periodically into a National Coastal Condition Report. This series of reports contains one of the most comprehensive ecological assessments of the condition of our nations coastal bays and estuaries. The assessment presented in each report is based on data from more than 2,000 sites.

"December 2008." "The content of this report was contributed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Interior in cooperation with several other local, state and federal agencies."--Acknowledgements. Preserved in the OCLC Digital Archive. Harvested from http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr3/pdf/nccr3_entire.pdf on Feb. 27, 2009. Includes bibliographical references. "EPA/842-R-08-002."

[This is] the third in a series of environmental assessments of U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes. The report includes assessments of 100 percent of the nation's estuaries in the contiguous 48 states and Puerto Rico. Estuaries are bodies of water where fresh water from rivers meets the salt waters of the ocean.