Appendix A: The NEI Program 



Additional Activities 



A number of additional NEI activities 

 are now under way or planned. 

 Based on the review of Volume 1 of 

 the NEI by estuarine scientists and 

 State and Federal resource manag- 

 ers, several areas have been identi- 

 fied for improvement in future editions. 



New Estuaries Added. New estuar- 

 ies of local or regional importance 

 have been added. Eight estuaries in 

 Oregon have been added due to their 

 biological importance to coastal 

 fisheries. Five new EDAs have been 

 delineated to represent the original 

 Mississippi Delta Region because of a 

 need for increased resolution. A 

 limited number of additions to other 

 portions of the Pacific, Atlantic, and 

 Gulf of Mexico regions have also been 

 made. 



A new NOAA report, Estuaries of the 

 United States, Vital Statistics of a 

 National Resource Base, updates the 

 NEI. The report provides information 

 on an expanded number of EDAs 

 (102), including physical and hydro- 

 logic features, natural resources, 

 economic activities, and pollution 

 susceptibility. These EDAs and the 

 counties falling within their boundaries 

 are the units for which all NEI data are 

 now collected. The wetlands data 

 presented in Appendix D are orga- 

 nized according to this framework. 



Improved Salinity Resolution. 



Another recommendation was to 

 improve the resolution of the salinity 

 regimes mapped for each estuary. 

 Based on a study of Mobile Bay to 



determine if bottom and surface 

 salinities could be mapped in zones of 

 five parts per thousand increments for 

 periods of high and low flow, an effort 

 to compile data for EDAs along the 

 Gulf Coast is now nearing completion. 

 This detailed depiction will character- 

 ize the effects of freshwater inflow, 

 tides, and wind on salinity patterns 

 more completely than the three 

 average annual salinity zones de- 

 scribed in Volume I of the NEI. 



Other Projects. A project focusing on 

 the agricultural use of 28 selected 

 pesticides on 71 crops in 78 EDAs 

 was completed in 1989. Future NEI 

 volumes on additional topics are also 

 planned. For example, a project to 

 characterize the distribution and 

 abundance of fishes and invertebrates 

 in estuaries began in 1985. To date, 

 information has been compiled on 103 

 species in 83 estuaries on the Pacific, 

 Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic 

 coasts, and information is currently 

 being compiled for 62 species in 34 

 North Atlantic estuaries. 



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