"LIVING SHORELINE” EXHIBIT ON THE CHESAPEAKE BAY OPENS AT NAUTICUS

Nauticus at The National Maritime Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today dedicated The Living Shoreline, a new exhibit that celebrates the Chesapeake Bay and the role NOAA plays in restoring the critical waterway. More than 16 million people live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The exhibit features a cross-section of a typical creek of the lower bay, and highlights the importance of the four ecological zones found in the bay—uplands, tidal marsh, underwater grasses and oyster reefs. The four zones work together to maintain a healthy bay. The centerpiece of this new exhibit is 1,000-gallon aquarium tank filled with underwater grasses and living creatures that call the Chesapeake Bay home, including striped bass, croaker, flounder, blue crabs and oysters.

“This exhibit will educate museum visitors about a national treasure in their backyard—the Chesapeake Bay,” said Pat Montanio, director of the NOAA Fisheries Service Office Of Habitat Conservation. “NOAA is delighted to partner with Nauticus to make this educational exhibit available to visitors.”

The exhibit is designed to help visitors look at the bay and its tributaries from a fresh perspective, as The Living Shoreline describes interactions within the bay’s ecosystem, including how much human activities impact the bay.

“The exhibit describes actions people can take at home and in their community to restore the bay,” said Andrew Larkin, NOAA@Nauticus Project Manager. “We anticipate that it will renew many peoples’ commitment to taking care of their bay.”

NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office is in its second decade of providing science, service and stewardship to advance NOAA’s mission in the mid-Atlantic region, and to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay through its programs in fisheries management, habitat restoration, coastal observations and education.

NOAA@Nauticus is a partnership between NOAA and Nauticus at The National Maritime Center to promote scientific and environmental literacy, and to inform the public about NOAA’s programs and activities. Nauticus is a maritime-themed science and education center in Norfolk, Va., that attracts more than 350,000 visitors a year with special programs and exhibits focused on the power of the sea. NOAA hosts an Education Resource Center at Nauticus, and also maintains exhibits including Science on a Sphere, an innovative system that uses high-speed computers, projectors and advanced imaging techniques to create the illusion of a six-foot, rotating Earth suspended in mid-air.

In 2007 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, celebrates 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

On the Web:

NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov

NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office: http://noaa.chesapeakebay.net