About
This Report
This "condition report" provides a summary of resources in the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Olympic
Coast National Marine Sanctuary, pressures on those
resources, current condition and trends, and management responses to
the pressures that threaten the integrity of the marine environment.
Specifically, the document includes information on the status and
trends of water quality, habitat, living resources and maritime
archaeological resources and the human activities that affect them. It
presents responses to a set of questions posed to all sanctuaries
(Appendix A). Resource status of Olympic Coast National Marine
Sanctuary is rated on a scale from good to poor, and the timelines used
for comparison vary from topic to topic. Trends in the status of
resources are also reported, and are generally based on observed
changes in status over the past five years, unless otherwise specified.
Sanctuary staff consulted
with outside experts familiar with the resources and with knowledge of
previous and current scientific investigations. Evaluations of status
and trends are based on interpretation of quantitative and, when
necessary, non-quantitative assessments, and the observations of
scientists, managers and users. The ratings reflect the collective
interpretation by sanctuary staff of the status of local issues of
concern, based on their knowledge and perception of local problems, as
rated and informed by outside experts. The final ratings were
determined by sanctuary staff. Before public release, this report was
peer reviewed to comply with the White House Office of Management and
Budget’s peer review standards as outlined in the Final
Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review. Further details are
provided in Appendix B.
This is the first attempt to
describe comprehensively the status, pressures and trends of resources
at Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Additionally, the report
helps identify gaps in current monitoring efforts, as well as causal
factors that may require monitoring and potential remediation in the
years to come. The data discussed will enable resource managers to not
only acknowledge prior changes in resource status, but will provide
guidance for future management as we face challenges imposed by such
potential threats as oil spills, invasive species, commercial
development, climate change and underwater noise pollution.
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