Central to the recommendations in Clean Coastal Waters
is that a national strategy should set reasonable goals for
improvement and expand monitoring of coastal waters
to make sure goals are being met. Long-term monitoring
and assessment programs help managers to (1) establish
what the “baseline” nutrient levels should be; (2)
determine where nutrient over-enrichment is most acute;
and (3) measure whether or not actions to reduce nutrient
run-off have been effective. The report recommends
that a national assessment survey be conducted every
10 years to determine the extent of nutrient problems
and the effectiveness of efforts to combat them.