Assessing the health of the Indian River Lagoon

Assessing the health of the Indian River Lagoon framework documentIAN and the Marine Resources Council released the Indian River Assessment framework in November. IAN facilitated a workshop in January this year to develop this assessment framework. The workshop had about 60 participants, with stakeholders from around the region determining ways to measure the health of the Lagoon from water quality, habitat, fish and shellfish, and wildlife perspectives. The Lagoon was divided into 5 sub-regions in a roughly north to south orientation. Potential indicators for each of these sub-regions were discussed, and will be pursued in the development of the assessment report, which is the next step in the project. Immediately following the January workshop, Indian River Lagoon suffered tremendous algal blooms and subsequent fish kills, which highlight the importance of this assessment process. We hope to work further with our partners to develop the State of the Indian River Lagoon Report.