UCSC Review Winter 1998

Campus Update: $15 million approved for fisheries lab

UCSC's vision of a leading center for coastal marine research in Santa Cruz surged forward in November, just as a threatening El Niño served to remind residents of the fragility and mystery of our oceans.

The U.S. Congress, in one of its last acts before adjourning for the year, voted to allocate $15.2 million to move a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) labora-tory from its aging facility in Tiburon, north of San Francisco, to a new building next to UCSC's Long Marine Lab. Scientists at the fisheries lab study fish that live close to the seafloor along the California coast, as well as the environmental and human-caused factors that affect their populations.

The funding will pay for plans and construction of a new building near the recently opened Oiled Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center, operated jointly by the state Department of Fish and Game and UCSC's Institute of Marine Sciences. Construction could begin as early as next summer, with completion by late 1999 or early 2000.

The new project adds to a veritable tsunami of activity at Long Marine Lab and its environs. Already under way is construction of UCSC's $5.3 million Marine Discovery Center, which will triple the lab's capacity to educate schoolchildren and the general public. The Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, housed at Long Marine Lab, will build a $250,000 Oiled Seabird Facility next to the state's Oiled Wildlife Center to focus on the care and monitoring of oiled birds.

Indeed, years of behind-the-scenes efforts at UCSC and in Washington, D.C., are now paying off. "I am excited that we finally have the funding needed to move the NMFS Tiburon laboratory to Santa Cruz," said U.S. Congress-man Sam Farr (D-Carmel). "The NMFS laboratory will benefit from a new partnership with Long Marine Lab and collaborative efforts with UCSC and the Oiled Wildlife Center."