National Estuary Program

National Estuary Program logo [Image: EPA]
[Image: EPA]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s National Estuary Program was established by Congress in 1987 to improve the quality of nationally important estuaries. The Clean Water Act directs the EPA to plan for maintaining or attaining water quality in estuaries. This includes protection of public water supplies; protection and propagation of balanced, indigenous populations of shellfish, fish, and wildlife; allows for recreational activities; and requires that the control of point and nonpoint sources of pollution supplements existing pollution controls. In several cases, more than one state participates in a nationally-designated estuary partnership. There are 28 estuaries currently in the Program.

Featured Resource

Estuaries.gov Logo [Image: NERSS, NOAA]
Estuaries.gov Logo [Image: NERSS, NOAA]

Estuaries.gov is an educational resource for learning and teaching about estuaries, managed and maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERSS). It is an interagency site with several partners and programs, including the EPA's National Estuary Program. The site provides accurate, science-based information about estuaries and coastal issues, and includes a free online curriculum, current news, image and video libraries, data exploration, and additional resources.

Featured Marine Resource

[Image: NBII]
[Image: NBII]

The NBII Marine Habitats Node provides access to information about marine habitats, including general information, coral reefs, federal management agencies, invasive species, plants and animals, and data. Key projects of the Marine Habitat Node include the Coral Reefs Project, which integrates coral reef datasets, maps, publications, fact sheets, images, and other information from a variety of partner organizations; and OBIS-USA, a one-stop source for biogeographic data collected from U.S. waters and oceanic regions which is part of the global Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS).

Estuaries
Estuary [Photo: NOAA]
[Photo: NOAA]

Estuaries are the dynamic interface between freshwater and marine habitats, defined as "a partly enclosed tidal inlet of the sea in which sea water and river water mix to some degree" (Little, 2000). The word "estuary" is derived from the Latin word aestus, which means tide.

Typically found where rivers meet the sea, estuaries exhibit a wide range of variability, ranging from salt water bays with very little freshwater inputs to lagoons with limited mixing with the ocean. They are home to a high diversity of birds, plant species, invertebrates, fish, and other aquatic organisms that are adapted to a life in flux. Estuaries are some of the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world.

Sources:
Little, C. 2000. The Biology of Soft Shores and Estuaries. Oxford University Press. New York, NY.
Estuaries, NOAA Ocean Service Education.

To find out more about estuaries including their classification, habitats, and human impacts, follow the links below:

[Photo: NOAA]Classification
Learn about how estuaries are classified.
Carolina salt marsh [Photo: NOAA]Estuarine Habitats
Learn about the types of habitats within estuaries.
Dead Zone [Photo: NASA]Human Impacts (Accessible soon)
Find out about how human activities can affect estuary habitats.


National Estuary Program Resources
Showing 10 of 21 ( Show All )
CollapseAlbemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program
Description: The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program (APNEP) was the first of the 28 National Estuary Programs established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through amendments to the Clean Water Act. The program is a cooperative effort jointly sponsored by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the EPA, and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. APNEP is a community-based watershed program that focuses not only on improving water quality in estuaries, but also on maintaining the integrity of the whole ecosystem
Resource Type: Issue Overviews
Resource Format: URL
Publisher: Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program
ExpandAlbemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program
ExpandAssociation of National Estuary Programs
ExpandBarataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Education Program
ExpandBarataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program
ExpandBarataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program Shellfish Initiative Challenge
ExpandBarataria-Terrebonne: Portrait of an Estuary
ExpandBuzzards Bay National Estuary Program
ExpandCharlotte Harbor National Estuary Program
ExpandEPA National Estuary Program

Discover the National Fish Habitat Action Plan and Data

NFHAP logo [Image: National Fish Habitat Action Plan]
[Image: National Fish Habitat Action Plan]

The National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) is an unprecedented attempt to address a nationwide fish crisis by focusing on the loss and degradation of their habitat. The Plan was born in 2001 by an ad hoc group supported by the Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council. This group was inspired to develop a partnership effort for fish conservation in the image of the successful and strategic North American Waterfowl Management Plan.

As a federal-level partner, the USGS-NBII was designated by the National Fish Habitat Board to house the data delivery system supporting the National Fish Habitat Action Plan. Find out more about NBII's role in the NFHAP and the data associated with the Plan.

Featured Estuary: Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay Aerial Photo [Photo: NOAA]
Chesapeake Bay Aerial Photo
[Photo: NOAA]

The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, stretches across more than 64,000 miles along the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, and the entire District of Columbia. It is an incredibly complex ecosystem with important habitats and food webs for diverse groups of animals and plants, but it faces many threats to its health and integrity, including nutrient pollution, chemical contaminants, air pollution, landscape changes, erosion, and over-harvesting of fish and shellfish.

The Chesapeake Bay has recently received renewed attention as a national treasure in need of restoration and protection, in response to President Obama's May 2009 Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration Executive Order.

Additional Resources:

Aquatic Food Webs

Aquatic Food Webs [Image: US EPA]
Aquatic Food Webs [Image: US EPA]

Aquatic food webs are conceptual diagrams that demonstrate the flow of energy and nutrients in aquatic systems. Although the species that make up aquatic food webs will greatly vary depending on habitat type, the basic trophic levels or feeding levels of food webs are similar. Producers such as phytoplankton, aquatic plants, and algae use photosynthesis to convert sunlight and nutrients into living tissue. Primary consumers such as zooplankton and plant grazers eat producers. Secondary and tertiary consumers such as invertebrate predators, birds, fish, mammals, and humans eat lower-level prey items. Decomposers consume dead plants and animals, breaking organic matter down into nutrients. Since organisms seldom feed exclusively on another, several food chains are often woven together to form a "food web," a complex cycle of interconnected organisms and organic matter.

Explore the NBII Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Node's Aquatic Organisms section for more information about the wide variety of organisms that use the aquatic environment, ranging from endangered species to aquaculture.

Discover the NBII Bird Conservation Node's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Focal Bird Species, many of which are shorebirds, seabirds, and waterfowl that are important components of aquatic food webs.

The NBII Program is administered by the Biological Informatics Program of the U.S. Geological Survey
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