This section summarizes findings about the use and condition of America’s coasts and oceans, and about the additional information needed to improve understanding of these areas.

Of the three systems covered in this report, coasts and oceans suffer most from a lack of comprehensive and consistent information on key ecosystem goods, services, and properties. Accordingly, there are many measures in this section of the report for which comprehensive and consistent national information is not available, and there is a greater-than-usual reliance on examples to illustrate the measures proposed for reporting.

This section focuses primarily on coastal and ocean waters, and on the narrow strip of land that borders these waters. Many studies consider a much broader "coastal zone," which includes areas with significant populations that affect the coast, or from which drainage flows to the coast. We have chosen a narrower strip of land in order to highlight the condition of the coasts themselves rather than the sources of the pressures that may affect these areas.

Where possible, we have included information about coastal and ocean areas off Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories. However, data on these areas are limited, resulting in coverage that is substantially thinner than that for other areas of the United States.

Coasts and oceans contain many different habitat types, which can be defined, for example, by depth, exposure to tides, saltiness, and the types of plants and animals that use the area. Each region of the country has a characteristic mix of beach, wetlands, mudflats, reefs, seagrass or kelp beds, and the like. These areas can shift and change in size naturally, and they can be modified by human action. Unfortunately, with the exception of coastal wetlands, there is no consistent national effort to quantify how these areas are changing. Historical conversions resulted in major losses of coastal wetlands, although the rate of loss appears to have been reduced significantly on a national basis.

Loss of coastal land area through erosion has significant economic effects and can have ecological implications as well. Although local studies are common, there is no consistent effort to identify such changes nationally.

Beaches, wetlands, mudflats and similar areas on the immediate fringe of the coast provide critical nesting, feeding, and resting sites for birds, fish and mammals. The amount of this narrow strip that is converted from its natural condition to developed areas or other human uses influences how much and what type of habitat is available. In addition, patches of natural habitat that are fragmented or isolated from each other may have reduced value as habitat. However, there is no consistent information or solid scientific consensus on the key aspects of the arrangement and configuration of coastal and shoreline habitat areas.

The area of coastal and ocean waters under U.S. jurisdiction extends 200 miles from shore. Only about 26 square miles of all U.S. waters are known to have restrictions that completely prohibit fishing. Fishing in other areas is regulated by both state and federal agencies, with a host of species- and time-specific restrictions. Approximately 1 million square miles are closed to oil and gas activity until 2012, with about 250,000 square miles currently leased or open for leasing.

There is no comprehensive program to determine how much of the Nation’s coast is in federal, state, local, or private protected areas, or how much and what types of development controls apply to the remainder.

Commercial fishery landings, which averaged between 2 million and 3 million metric tons from 1950 to the mid 1970s, rose to about 4.5 million tons during the early 1980s. Even in areas where landings have remained stable, many more species are targeted and, in some regions, there have been major shifts in the species that account for the largest landings.

There is no consistent measurement of recreational visitation to the coast. As a partial example, the 14 National Seashores and Lakeshores alone receive about 20 million visits per year. Access to coastal areas varies greatly by state, with some areas having a much higher proportion of publicly owned coastal land.

In 1998, there were about 7,200 beach closings and advisories in coastal and Great Lakes waters. Currently, about 30 percent of the nation’s shellfish-growing areas are closed or have harvest restrictions. Differences among states in the numbers of closings and advisories may say more about the varying levels of resources devoted to monitoring than about actual levels of contamination.

Ideally, we would like to track several key chemical and physical measures. Chlorophyll is a measure of the growth of algae and other plants, the base of the food chain. Nitrogen and phosphorous are key nutrients for algae and other plants. Dissolved oxygen was selected because, if it drops too low, fish and other animals cannot survive. Salinity and temperature are key determinants of where plant and animal species can live. Unfortunately, there is no consistent national information available to track changes in most of these key properties. Satellite remote sensing can provide information on large-scale changes in sea surface temperature and chlorophyll, but it cannot determine conditions in estuaries.

Between 1985 and 1996, there was little change in contaminant levels found in mussels and oysters, organisms that can concentrate contaminants found in water. Pesticides and other contaminants were detected in more than half of coastal sediments surveyed from 1990 to 1996, in all regions of the country, but rarely in concentrations that exceed levels associated with potential biological impacts.

Some groups of species are important because they play key ecological roles, whereas others are important because they are powerful indicators of disturbance to the ecosystem. We are developing a measure or set of measures for the condition of key species groups in each of several key habitat types. For the final report we will select and further refine these measures and collect additional data.

Seabird populations are key indicators of ecosystem integrity. About 85 percent of all seabird species are classified as "apparently secure," and the number of populations that are either stable or increasing exceeds the number that are declining. However, population trends are unknown for nearly 50 percent of Alaskan species and more than 25 percent of East Coast species. Four of 10 sea turtle populations found in U.S. waters are stable or increasing in number, but all remain classified as "at risk." For nearly 80 percent of marine mammal stocks, population trends are unknown, although most are considered "apparently secure."

The status of more than 60 percent (544 stocks) of commercially fished stocks is unknown. One-third of the 300 stocks whose status is known are either overfished or approaching an overfished condition.

Finally, case studies indicate that the rates of introduction of nonnative species and the occurrence of fish abnormalities and harmful algal blooms are increasing. However, there are no consistent and comprehensive national data that can validate these concerns.

The table on the next page provides a listing of the measures presented in greater detail on the following pages. Additional information on each measure is in the Technical Notes.