Pushing the Limit

Up and down the coasts of the United States, nearly half of the nation's estuaries are in a threatened state, according to the 2005 National Coastal Condition Report II a collaboration of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey. The report summarizes vast quantities of data evaluated under five indices...

The poorest estuary conditions lay in the Northeast and Puerto Rico, while the Southeast, Gulf Coast, Great Lakes, and West Coast regions fare just a step behind.