"This document presents the results of an assessment of ecological condition and potential stressor impacts in coastal-ocean waters of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS), based on sampling conducted in June 2008. The project was a collaborative effort by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It represents one of a series of studies, similar in protocol and design to EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and subsequent National Coastal Assessment (NCA), which extend these prior efforts in estuaries and inland waters out to the coastal shelf, from navigable depths along the shoreline seaward to the shelf break (approximate 100 m depth contour). Ecological assessments in National Marine Sanctuaries provide a basis for comparing conditions in these protected areas to surrounding non-sanctuary waters"--Preface.