Preface 



NOAA's Estuarine Living Marine Program 



We take great pride in providing you this comprehensive report: National Overview and 

 Evolution of NOAA's Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Program. This document 

 complements many of our ELMR program technical reports and peer reviewed literature that 

 has been published over the last 15 years. The impetus behind the development of this 

 document was to provide our user community with a unified document that summarizes the 

 fundamental information contained in the ELMR regional databases and to provide documen- 

 tation of how the program and its associated methodologies have evolved. 



Although the ELMR program is housed within NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS), the 

 implementation and success of the nationwide program is due to the efforts of hundreds of 

 scientists and managers who have assisted us in compiling the species distribution, relative 

 abundance, and life history information. Their willingness to work with us by providing 

 resources, compiling and providing data, and reviewing the digital data base and associated 

 GIS map products have made the ELMR program a success. We owe a special thanks to our 

 colleagues in the National Marine Fisheries Service, who, over the years, provided many of the 

 principal investigators who aided NOS ELMR scientists in developing the nationwide data- 

 base. 



Our ELMR activities will continue to evolve within NOS's Biogeography Program, and we 

 encourage you to follow the evolution of ELMR and its associated synthesis and research 

 activities on the Web: http://biogeo.nos.noaa.gov. 



Sincerely, 



Mark E. Monaco, Ph.D. 



Manager, NOS Biogeography Program 

 National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science 

 Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment 

 Silver Spring, MD 

 April 2000 



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