News.bytes Extra, issue 378

 California Coastal National Monument kiosk placed at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium

Cabrillo Marine Aquarium now has a permanent California Coastal National Monument (CCNM) exhibit.  In late March, representatives from BLM’s California Desert District, the Palm Springs/South Coast Field Office, and monument manager, Rick Hanks, presented the aquarium with the three-sided CCNM kiosk. (text continues below)

A Los Angeles Unified School District high school student watches a grunion hatch at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. The grunion will soon to be released into the ocean.

The San Pedro aquarium, operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, is a non-profit public aquarium that prides itself in engaging its more than 300,000 annual visitors – many of them inter-city students -- in education, recreation, and research of the marine life of Southern California.

“The aquarium is a perfect place to educate Southern Californians about the California Coastal National Monument,” says John Kalish, BLM’s Palm Springs/South Coast Field Office manager.  “The exhibits and research laboratories of the aquarium provide great opportunities to learn about the marine ecosystem and how to protect it.  That’s a perfect fit for what we hope to accomplish with the monument.”

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium also takes great pride in its unusual design by world-famous architect Frank Gehry. 

Greg Thomsen, California Desert District’s CCNM coordinator; Tracy Albrecht, Palm Springs/South Coast (PSSC) Field Office interpretive specialist; Rick Hanks, CCNM manager; and John Kalish, PSSC Field Office Manager, present Dr. Julianne Kalman, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium exhibits and collections curator, with the CCNM kiosk.

Snapshots of student visits to education programs at the aquarium:

See more photos of sea life, and learn more at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium website

- Dave Briery, 3/09

BLM-California News.bytes, issue 378