Established in 1987 by amendments to the Clean Water Act and administered by the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds (OWOW), the National Estuary Program (NEP) identifies, restores and protects estuaries along the coasts of the United States. Unlike the traditional regulatory approaches to environmental protection, the NEP targets a wide range of issues and engages local communities in the process. At the site users can find descriptions of the NEP, specific NEP projects, estuaries involved in the NEP (including location, size, presence of threatened and endangered species, major habitat types, etc.), a current awareness section, links to related sites, and the full text of NEP's newsletter, Coastlines.