the Estuarine and Oceanographic Programs Branch) to carry out the 

 study as directed by the Congress. 



Immediate steps were taken to insure that all interested parties could 

 participate actively. Representatives of each bureau chief in the De- 

 partment of the Interior formed an ad hoc Estuarine Advisory Com- 

 mittee, which was later formalized into an advisory group to the Office 

 of Marine Resources. Each Federal executive department head and 

 each coastal State or territorial Governor designated a representative 

 to coordinate his participation. National scientific, cultural, and user 

 organizations were invited to participate, and 30 public meetings were 

 held throughout the estuarine zone to obtain the views of individual 

 citizens. Numerous consultations were held with groups and indi- 

 viduals expressing interest. 



All of these groups and individuals were asked to assist by providing 

 information and opinion about the value, use, and pollution of the 

 estuarine resource. Tlie Federal Water Pollution Control Adminis- 

 tration regional offices worked closely with State agencies in collecting 

 information, and other Federal agencies provided information col- 

 lected by or through them. Some 22 contracts were negotiated to ob- 

 tain particular types of information and to prepare case studies of spe- 

 cific estuarine systems. To organize and coordinate the vast amount of 

 quantitative information, an automated information storage and re- 

 trieval system, the National Estuarine Inventory, was developed. The 

 list of information to be included in the inventory was developed with 

 the cooperation of all Department of the Interior agencies and repre- 

 sents a consensus of what the Department regards as the basic infor- 

 mation necessary for effective estuarine management. 



The recommended national management program (pt. Ill), prob- 

 ably the single most important result of the study, was reviewed at 

 two stages by the coastal States and all concerned Federal agencies. 

 The Department of Interior agencies have reviewed not only the rec- 

 ommended program, but also the discussions of supporting material 

 leading to the recommended national program (pts. II, IV, V, and 

 VI.) 



Organization of the Report 



The report is organized to point out the relationship of the bio- 

 physical, socioeconomic, and mstitutional environments within the 

 estuarine zone, and also to point out that technical management is a 

 different matter from institutional management, even though there is 

 a strong dependence between them. 



Part II, "Summary and Conclusions," presents a summary of in- 

 formation (presented in more detail in pts. IV and VI) leading to the 

 recommended national program. 



Part III, "Recommendations — The Proposed Program," presents in 

 full the recommendations for a comprehensive national program of 

 estuarine management (presented in more detail in pt. V), tying to- 

 gether the needs of the biophysical environment, the demands o£ the 

 socioeconomic environment, and the responsibilities of the institutional 

 environment. 



Part IV, "The Importance of the Estuarine Zone," discusses the 

 biophysical and socioeconomic environments of the estuarine zone, 

 shows the interaction of the two environments, and points out how the 



