Save the Sound along with its partners produced the Long Island Sound report card. Overall, Long Island Sound health is good, but the job's not done. There is an east-west gradient from healthy water in the Eastern Long Island Sound (received a grade of A) to unhealthy water in the Western Narrows (received a grade of F). The report card compares water quality indicators (dissolved oxygen, nutrients, chlorophyll a, and water clarity) to scientifically derived thresholds or goals.

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The Inner Hempstead Harbor report card is part of a larger effort to assess Long Island Sound health on an annual basis. The Long Island Sound and embayment report cards provide a picture of overall health. Bringing embayment report cards together with the Long Island Sound report card communicates a complete picture of ecosystem health in the area. The report card provides a geographically specific assessment of annual Inner Hempstead Harbor ecosystem health for 2013.

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The Long Island Sound Report Card was developed through a collaborative effort between the staff at the Long Island Sound Study and their Science and Technical Advisory Committee, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and New York Department of Environmental Conservation. The Sound was divided into 5 reporting regions; western and eastern narrows, western, central, and eastern Long Island Sound.

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The Norwalk Harbor report card is part of a larger effort to assess Long Island Sound health on an annual basis. The Long Island Sound and embayment report cards will provide a picture of overall health. Bringing embayment report cards together with the Long Island Sound report card communicates a complete picture of ecosystem health in the area. The report card provides a geographically specific assessment of annual Norwalk Harbor ecosystem health for 2013.

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This report provides an assessment of eutrophic conditions for 141 U.S. estuaries. The report was based on data and information provided by scientists and experts from around the country. Results from the assessment show that two-thirds of the estuaries evaluated exhibited moderate to high levels of eutrophication. Report production was a collaborative effort between Suzanne Bricker (NOAA NCCOS), EcoCheck (NOAA-UMCES Partnership) and IAN. More information is available from the NEEA website.

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For the past 4 summers (1985–1988), the microalga Aureococcus anophagefferens bloomed in Long Island embayments, causing large scale perturbations in water column dynamics. The “brown tide” algal blooms brought about significant changes in the benthic community as well. The high cell densities (>109 l-1) of A. anophagefferens significantly increased light absorption in the water column (Cosper et al., 1987), and reduced the light available to plants living on the bottom of the embayments.

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