Press Release

Contact:
Aaron King, 831-647-4257, aaron.king@noaa.gov

CONTRACT AWARDED TO ENHANCE SALMONID PROTECTION

"We are excited about this new project," says Sanctuary Foundation Executive Director Dennis Long. "The Foundation is the perfect vehicle to help organize this Salmon/Steelhead work. Our non-profit status and our close working relationship with the Sanctuary program, allows us to provide such fiscal sponsorship services at a very low cost. We also believe it is a great project to show the benefits of combining the efforts of multiple non-profit organizations into one well managed initiative."

The Monterey Bay Sanctuary Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization established to advance the understanding and protection of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It focuses on developing and implementing projects that increase the public's information about, and awareness of, the Sanctuary. Its recent projects include "The Grand Canyon of Monterey Bay" poster, and most recently, a new bathymetric/topographic Sanctuary map funded from a grant by Duke Energy, new owners of the power plant in Moss Landing.

"Protecting salmon and steelhead habitat is of paramount importance to the MBNMS," says William Douros, MBNMS Superintendent. "A healthy salmonid population is critically important to the central California coastal ecosystem and economy. Numerous commercial and recreational interests are dependent upon these resources. The problem, of course, is that you cannot solve the problem of salmonid depletion by concentrating your solutions in the ocean because salmon and steelhead reproduce in streams. So, this project will be a great way for the Sanctuary to help people make a connection between the land and sea in helping these important species."

Funding will be used to enhance a Sanctuary Citizen Watershed Monitoring Network (including a training workshop), conduct a salmon Symposium free to the public to discuss the various threats to salmon as well as the different perspectives in protecting salmon, and facilitate targeted technical training workshops to emphasize sediment control. The contract will also pay to develop educational materials, including: brochures for the boating community, agriculture community, and the general public, a Salmonids of the Sanctuary poster, and a reprinting of the popular "Living in a Watershed" series for landowners.

"The National Marine Fisheries Service is pleased to fund this joint salmonid education project," stated Miles Croom of the NMFS office in Santa Rosa. We look forward to working with the Sanctuary to help the public understand how our two agencies within NOAA are conserving sensitive marine and fishery resources. We're delighted that the Sanctuary and Sanctuary Foundation have been able to pull together such an assortment of groups and talents on relatively short notice. The rapid development of this outreach effort tells me that there is a tremendous amount of public support for marine conservation in the local area."

The Monterey Bay Sanctuary Foundation is a nonprofit 501 (c) (3)corporation to further the awareness, understanding and protection of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Since it's inception the foundation has sponsored a variety of education and research projects, developed a series of products that educate the public about the marine sanctuary, and generated money to conduct additional outreach programs. More information may be found at www.mbnmsf.org

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was created in 1992 and is one of twelve Marine Sanctuaries nationwide, managed by the National Ocean Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOS/NOAA). The program mission is to manage marine areas of national significance to protect the ecological and cultural integrity for the benefit of current and future generations. More information may be found at "montereybay.nos.noaa.gov".

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is the national agency responsible for management of salmon and other living marine resources. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the parent agency for NMFS. More information may be found at "www.nmfs.gov".