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June 15, 1998
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Digging in are (left to right): Chancellor Greenwood, Churchill Grimes, Kathleen McGinty, Sam Farr, D. James Baker, and Rolland A. Schmitten.
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By Tim Stephens
Adding to the growing complex of marine research facilities at the site of UCSC's Long Marine Laboratory, construction will soon begin on a $19.4 million state-of-the-art research laboratory for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The NMFS Santa Cruz Laboratory, designed primarily for research on salmon and rockfish, will replace an obsolete lab facility in Tiburon, California.
A crowd of almost 300 people gathered in a field next to Long Marine Lab on Wednesday, June 10, to celebrate the official groundbreaking for the NMFS lab on the eve of the National Ocean Conference in Monterey. A reception on campus at the University House followed the ceremony.
"I am most pleased to greet a new neighboring research facility located adjacent to Long Marine Laboratory, and I am delighted to welcome a new partner in marine research," said Chancellor Greenwood.
Also taking part in the groundbreaking were Congressman Sam Farr; Kathleen McGinty, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; D. James Baker, under-secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Rolland A. Schmitten, director of NMFS; and Churchill B. Grimes, director of the NMFS Santa Cruz/Tiburon Laboratory.
Neal Lane, director of the National Science Foundation (and the president's nominee for director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy), attended the ceremony as a special guest.
"The synergy that comes from partnering with academia and other local institutions to tackle science for tough fishery issues will be tremendous," said Under-secretary Baker.
Schmitten said the lab will employ more than 40 fisheries scientists and staff when completed in early 2000.