Jackfish Bay was identified as an Area of Concern (AOC) in 1987 due to degraded water and sediment quality and environmental health, which included impairment to benthic communities. As part of the Great Lakes Action Plan, assessments of benthic conditions in the Jackfish Bay AOC have been conducted periodically since 2003. Using information from four assessment components – sediment chemistry, sediment toxicity, benthic community structure, and resident invertebrate contaminant bioaccumulation – overall and assessment component-specific conditions were determined. In 2011, the AOC was designated an Area in Recovery, obligating federal and provincial governments to implement a long-term plan to monitor recovery. The last assessment conducted in 2013 indicated continuing adverse conditions, particularly nearest to the mill effluent discharge. The current project (2019) supported the Jackfish Bay monitoring plan. The objectives of the 2019 study were to: 1) Determine whether conditions are significantly different from reference conditions and, if so, to what degree and spatial extent; 2) Evaluate whether benthic conditions in Jackfish Bay are improving over time.