Habitat status and trends in the Delaware Estuary

Abstract

The Delaware Estuary Program is one of a number of programs being conducted for many of the nations’ estuaries pursuant to the National Estuary Program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The intent of these programs is to develop and implement a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) for protecting, restoring, and enhancing the quality of estuarine resources. To establish the technical basis for the CCMP, the Delaware Estuary Program contracted for a series of studies of historical data sets relevant to estuarine resources. This study focused on fish and wildlife habitats and was designed to achieve the following objectives: (1) to identify and characterize the present status of key habitats in the Delaware Estuary region; (2) to obtain information on historic trends in habitat extent and condition; (3) to identify the causal change agents where habitat alterations have occurred; and (4) to recommend actions or programs to protect or restore significant habitats in the e...