WASHINGTON, D.C. – A congressional subcommittee will hold a public hearing at UCSB on Saturday to discuss the National Marine Sanctuary program.

The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 1003 of Kohn Hall. Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, is a member of the Natural Resources Committee's Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, and will serve as an expert witness at the oversight field hearing.

Like a national park, marine sanctuaries are protected areas for sea life where human activity is restricted.

Mrs. Capps is the only member of Congress to have two National Marine Sanctuaries within her district. The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary was established in 1980 and encompasses 1,252 square nautical miles of the Santa Barbara Channel. It includes the waters surrounding Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara Islands. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary stretches from Marin to Cambria, encompassing 276 miles of shoreline and 5,322 square miles of ocean.

"I look forward to discussing this program and how we can best protect valuable marine resources in further detail with my congressional colleagues, expert witnesses and local community at the hearing," Mrs. Capps said.

Among those testifying Saturday will be William Douros, West Coast regional director of the National Marine Sanctuary Program; Margaret "Meg" Caldwell, senior lecturer in law, Stanford Law School; Dianne M. Black, Santa Barbara County chairperson, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary advisory council; Dennis Takahashi-Kelso, executive vice president of the Ocean Conservancy; Steven Gaines, UCSB professor; Bob Talbot, of Talbot Productions; and Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Mrs. Capps is also co-chairperson of the National Marine Sanctuary Caucus, along with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. The caucus is an effort to protect the nation's 13 marine sanctuaries.

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