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Spring 1996 |
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Inside |
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Cover |
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Sanctuary Symposium Gets High Marks
This year's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Symposium, entitled, "Building Community Connections in Science, Education and Conservation," focused on bringing together people from diverse backgrounds to meet and learn from one another. Several hundred people attended the two-day event, held on March 8-9, and the new format proved very popular.
"The feedback I've received has been overwhelmingly positive," says Donna Meyers, a consultant who helped plan the conference and analyzed critique forms filled out by attendees. "People really liked the diversity of workshops and programs, and reacted very favorably to the mix of education, science and conservation."
Friday night's activities included the Ricketts Memorial Lecture by Dr. Steven Webster ("Ed Ricketts, Where Are You When We Need You?") and presentation of "Sanctuary Reflections" Awards for individuals and organizations that have contributed to the mission of the Sanctuary. The following awards were presented by Sanctuary Manager Terry Jackson and Rick Starr, Marine Advisor with the UC Sea Grant Extension Program:
Conservation: Les Strnad, California Coastal CommissionEducation: Dorris Welch, Long Marine Lab
Science/Research: Deborah Johnston, Dept. of Fish and Game
Citizens: BAY NET and Sanctuary Stewards Certification Program volunteers
Organization: The Surfrider Foundation, Santa Cruz Chapter
Special Recognition: Congressman Sam Farr
Ironman Award for Excellence in Marine Sciences: Les Strnad
Saturday's events began with an inspiring keynote address by Michael L. Weber, author of The Wealth of Oceans, who urged the audience to break out from isolation in their work, whether it be research, education or conservation. He encouraged listeners to recognize and explore similarities with other fields, developing working relationships that benefit everyone and allow different groups to learn from one another.
The remainder of the morning was devoted to a series of lectures on the Sanctuary Site Characterization by Jo Guerrero (Moss Landing Marine Labs), Bob Curry (UCSC, CSUMB), Steve Ralston (National Marine Fisheries Service), Don Brutzman (Naval Postgraduate School) and Andrew DeVogelaere (MBNMS). (For more information on the Site Characterization, please see the article beginning on page 3.)
A long lunch hour gave participants time to visit booths from local environmental organizations, to view posters and abstracts of research projects in progress around the bay, and to access the Site Characterization on the Internet. The research posters included work from young students as well as professional researchers, and the interchange among the researchers that these posters generated was very positive. "We found that we had researchers talking to young kids &emdash; and the kids came back elated, saying 'Wow, I'm a real researcher!' " noted Wendy Ward, a Moss Landing Middle School science teacher.
Afternoon workshops focused on research, conservation and education issues. Melissa Hippard, Administrative Coordinator for Save Our Shores, attended the conservation panel. "I enjoyed the panel because it gave me some direct action to take, and helped me understand how best to work with my elected officials to ensure that they know what I want, and that they are working to pass important environmental legislation," commented Hippard. The panel focused on inspiring more public involvement in environmental issues and featured speakers like Gary Patton, Michael Weber and staff from local Congress Members' offices.
Terry Jackson agrees with participants that this year's
Symposium was a success, but is also looking at ways to
improve it in the future. "I really liked the idea of the
three interest groups coming together in the morning
sessions," he comments, "but in the afternoon, I had
difficulty trying to decide what session to go to because
there were so many good ones going on at the same time.
We'll work on improving that aspect of the workshop next
year." 
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