The Graduate School of Oceanography is delighted to announce the release of the ‘2017 State of Narragansett Bay and its Watershed Summary Report’.

This report was developed in partnership between the Narragansett Bay Estuary Project, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission.  Numerous faculty and alumni from the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island contributed to the content of the report as well as the leadership of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Narragansett Bay Estuary Project.

Key findings highlight five themes:

• The water in the bay is getting cleaner.
• Scientists are tracking changes in the ecosystem after recent reductions in pollution from wastewater treatment facilities.
• Conditions vary greatly among places in the bay and watershed, generally improving with distance from urban areas—but urbanized areas are expanding.
• Climate change is affecting air and water temperatures, precipitation, sea level, and fish in the Narragansett Bay region.
• More research and monitoring are needed to understand the major changes occurring in the bay and watershed in order to enable well-informed adaptation and mitigation.

The summary report can be viewed online: http://nbep.org/01/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/State-of-Narragansett-Bay-and-Its-Watershed-Summary-Report.pdf