Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary:
current issues being discussed
in a review of the management plan

Thursday, September 25   7 p.m. Refreshments, 7:30 p.m. Program Lecture Hall, Monterey Boatworks, Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove (Across from American Tin Cannery Outlet Stores) Speaker: Sean Morton, Management Plan Coordinator, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 1992, is the largest national marine sanctuary in the United States and is currently undergoing a review of its management plan. The goal of the review is to ensure that current issues and threats to the resources were being adequately addressed.

The Sanctuary is a junction of geographic ranges for many species and boasts a vast diversity of marine life, with 33 species of marine mammals, 94 species of seabirds, 345 species of fishes, 4 species of sea turtles, thousands of species of invertebrates, and more than 450 species of marine algae. The Sanctuary is enormous in physical size as well as the scope and diversity of issues with which it contends. This work effort involves a revision and possible updates to its policies and regulations, boundaries, as well as research, education and resource protection program priorities. The management plan review will reconnect the direction of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary with the priorities of the public, locally, statewide and even nationwide.

This timely presentation will review those issues currently being analyzed and the programs that will shape the future of "our" Sanctuary.

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