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February 10, 1997

President Clinton's budget funds relocation of federal fisheries lab to Santa Cruz

By Robert Irion

A long-planned relocation of a National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory from Tiburon to Santa Cruz moved a step closer to reality last week when President Clinton released his proposed budget for fiscal year 1998.

The budget calls for $15 million to purchase land and construct a new building for the laboratory, the only federal fisheries lab between Oregon and San Diego. If the U.S. Congress approves the funding, the facility will be built on land adjacent to UCSC's Long Marine Laboratory. It would join the California Department of Fish and Game's Oiled Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center, now under construction, and a planned new Marine Discovery Center at Long Marine Lab--all major additions to the steadily developing Monterey Bay Research Crescent.

"It is important that we move forward with the construction of this lab as soon as possible," said U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-CA) last week. "My staff and I have been actively encouraging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over the past year to budget for it accordingly. Once completed, this lab will undoubtedly benefit the local economy with the spending from its staff."

The facility would employ between 35 and 60 federal scientists and fisheries and resource management staff. Most of the research efforts focused upon at the aging Tiburon lab would continue at the new facility: studies of environmental factors that affect the health, growth, and reproduction of Pacific coast groundfish stocks and Klamath and Sacramento River salmon, and stock assessments of those fisheries to help manage West Coast fishery resources. Collaborative research is also likely between National Marine Fisheries Service and UCSC researchers on fishery issues germane to Monterey Bay and the central coast.

Building design for the project, funded by an earlier federal allocation of $1 million, began in September 1996 and is expected to last about a year.

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