Thursday, March 21, 2013

Free ocean acidification seminar coming to Bellingham March 28

By Sandy Howard

Some members of Washington state's Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification will be in Bellingham for a free seminar on this important and local topic.

The event will be held at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal on Thursday, March 28, from 6-8 p.m.

Topics to be covered include the science of ocean acidification, regional and local implications to the food web, and recommendations from the recently released Blue Ribbon Panel report on ocean acidification.
  • Betsy Peabody, the founder of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, will address “Local Impacts, Local Solutions.” Peabody was a member of the Washington State Panel on Ocean Acidification.

  • Brad Warren, also a member of the panel and Director for the Global Ocean Health Program of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and National Fisheries Conservation Center, will review the panel’s work and present “Recommendations, Partnerships and Actions.”

  • Whatcom County Councilman Carl Weimer will open the event.

The seminar is sponsored by Whatcom County Marine Resources Committee (MRC), the Northwest Straits Commission, the Port of Bellingham, Taylor Shellfish, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, the National Fisheries Conservation Center, the Puget Sound Partnership, the National Fisheries Conservation Center and the Puget Sound Restoration Fund.

To address the threat of increasingly corrosive marine waters, former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire appointed the 28-member Washington State Panel on Ocean Acidification in February 2012. It was co-chaired by Bill Ruckelshaus, the first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Jay Manning, former director of the Washington Department of Ecology. The panel presented its findings and 42 recommendations November 27 in Seattle.

Learn more at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/water/marine/oceanacidification.html.

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