The Marine Resources Council is a Palm Bay–based nonprofit that has worked on lagoon protection and restoration since 1983. Its Indian River Lagoon Report, first presented in this report-card format in 2016, evaluates five lagoon sub-basins using government and partner datasets. Here is the most recent report card, basin by basin.
MRC's 2025 Indian River Lagoon Report was released November 17, 2025. Bottom line: four of the five basins held steady compared to 2024, and the Central Indian River Lagoon improved from "poor" to "okay" — with lower algae concentrations and, for the first time in years, notable seagrass coverage.
MRC's 2025 report found overall basin health unchanged in four of five sub-basins. Central IRL improved from poor to okay because its harmful-algae and seagrass indicators improved, while its water-quality assessment remained poor. The report itself says multi-year results are needed and that lagoon conditions remain variable.
— Leesa Souto, PhD, MRC Executive Director, on the 2025 Report. The Central IRL had been the worst-scoring basin for years. Its overall score improved in 2025 during a period of concentrated septic-to-sewer, wastewater, muck-removal, and stormwater work in that stretch. The MRC Report Card measures condition and trend by basin; it does not by itself isolate the contribution of any single funding program.
Source: MRC 2025 Indian River Lagoon Report · WQCS coverage, Nov 2025
MRC scores each basin on a 0–3 scale using data from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Watershed Information Network, the South Florida Water Management District, and the Florida Institute of Technology. The general health grade averages three inputs: harmful algal blooms, water quality, and seagrass coverage.
Historically the healthiest basin, closest to functioning inlet flushing at Ponce de Leon. Its stability is a floor — if Mosquito goes bad, the whole lagoon is in trouble.
Home to the Rockledge WWTP upgrade (SOIRL's 100th project) and the Titusville plant improvements. Recovery here is closely tied to reducing legacy nitrogen loads.
Site of the Grand Canal muck dredging (534,000 cubic yards removed). Poor tidal exchange makes this basin vulnerable — every muck ton removed matters here more than anywhere.
The good news, carefully stated. Historically the worst-performing basin. In 2025 the overall score moved up a full grade because harmful-algae indicators dropped and seagrass acreage came back. The Water Quality sub-component score remained in the “poor” band even as the overall grade improved. This is consistent with a period of extensive septic-to-sewer, wastewater, muck-removal, and stormwater work in the basin, but the MRC Report Card alone does not isolate the contribution of any single project or funding source.
Vulnerable to Lake Okeechobee discharges via the St. Lucie estuary during high-water years. 2025 had no major discharges, which helped.
Source: MRC 2025 IRL Report and 2025 Report Methods. Data window: August 1, 2024 – August 1, 2025.
MRC is organizationally separate from Brevard County and compiles an independent assessment using data from government and research partners. That provides a useful external comparison; it does not create a second independent dataset or prove that one funding program caused the observed trend. MRC has worked on lagoon issues since 1983 — long before the SOIRL half-cent tax existed.
Every year MRC pulls raw data from the Florida DEP, the water management districts, and Florida Tech — the same primary datasets used by other lagoon reports — and independently scores each basin. Because MRC's report uses partly the same underlying datasets, it is best read as a useful independent view of the same water, not as a second independent dataset.
MRC has not always reported improvement. In the years of the 2011 super-bloom and the 2021–2022 manatee mortality event, MRC's grades reflected the collapse. That its 2025 report shows four basins unchanged and one improving does not by itself prove that any single funding program caused the observed change.
The overall basin assessment averages harmful algal blooms, water quality and seagrass coverage. Sediment-health and wastewater-spill data are displayed separately and are not included in the overall grade because the data are variable or incomplete. Salinity is also reported as a separate habitat metric. The 2025 report uses data from August 1, 2024 through August 1, 2025; its seagrass comparison uses 2021 and 2023 mapping.
MRC publishes the full 2025 Report — with year-over-year charts for every parameter and every basin — free online. If you want the numbers behind the grades, this is the front door.