Condition Report

A sanctuary condition report is a tool NOAA uses to assess the status and trends of national marine sanctuary resources. Condition reports provide a standardized summary of resources in national marine sanctuaries, drivers and pressures on those resources, and current conditions and trends for resources and ecosystem services. They also describe existing management responses to the pressures that threaten the integrity of the marine environment.

Condition reports include information on the status and trends of water quality, habitat, living resources and maritime archaeological resources, and the human activities that affect them. They present responses to a standardized set of questions. The reports also rate ecosystem service status and trends. A scale from "good to poor" is used to rate resource and ecosystem service status, and timelines used for comparison vary from topic to topic. Trends in the status of resources and ecosystem services are generally based on observed changes in status since the previous condition report, unless otherwise specified.

For more information about the goal of a condition report and its structure, go to our FAQs.