S. Jeffress Williams 1997 Nearly half of all Americans live within an hour's drive of an ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, or the Great Lakes. The U.S. coastal oceans are an economically vital transportation, commercial and recreational resource. They provide food, energy, and minerals for the entire Nation: on a global scale, they harbor critical habitat for important animal and plant species. application/pdf 10.3133/fs10897 en U.S. Geological Survey The Coastal and Marine Geology Program of the U.S. Geological Survey reports