People love estuaries and coastal areas for their beauty and for their many valuable uses including recreational fishing.
Estuaries have many different types of habitats, vital to many important species of fish.
Habitat includes salt marshes, seagrass beds, mangrove forests, and freshwater rivers. Estuaries and coastal areas provide essential habitat for 80 to 90 percent of the recreational catch of fish. Fish in our anadromous rivers, estuaries and oceans continue to be threatened by various forms of pollution and habitat degradation. A major threat to estuary and freshwater habitat health is polluted runoff or non-point source pollution. Storm water picks up a multitude of contaminants from roads, vehicles, lawns, and construction sites and dumps it in the nearest stream.