A New Emphasis on Coastal and Estaurine Environmental Quality Assessment

NOAA has initiated a new program called the Status and Trends (S&T) Program, within which a series of activities will be undertaken to quantify the current status and long-term, temporal, and spatial trends of key contaminant concentrations, water quality parameters, and biological indications of adverse effects in the nation\´s coastal and estuarine environments. Key questions the S&T program intend to answer are 1) what are the current conditions of the nation\´s coastal zone and 2) are these conditions getting better or worse? The S&T Program has four major components: benthic surveillance, "mussel watch," water quality, and compilation of a data base from relevant existing programs.