Olympic Coast: National Marine Sanctuary Condition Report 2008

摘要

This condition report provides a summary of resources in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations 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. 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 Budgets peer review standards as outlined in the Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review.