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Spring 1996 |
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Page 2 |
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Inside |
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Focus on Volunteers: Bay Net & Sanctuary Stewards |
pg. 2 |
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The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), established in 1992, is one of twelve marine sanctuaries nationwide within the Sanctuaries and Reserve Division (SRD) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Encompassing over 5,300 square miles of water, MBNMS stretches along the Central California Coast from Marin County near San Francisco southward to Cambria in San Luis Obispo County. The Sanctuary protects many habitats, ranging from sandy beaches and kelp forests to one of the largest underwater canyons on the west coast. Nutrient-rich currents nourish the area, supporting a productive and diverse marine ecosystem where countless species, many of them threatened or endangered, make their homes. The mission of the National Marine Sanctuaries Program is to manage marine areas of special national significance so as to protect their ecological and cultural integrity for the benefit of current and future generations. For more information on the Sanctuary, contact the Sanctuary office: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, 299 Foam Street, Suite D, Monterey, CA 93940, (408) 647-4201. |
BAY NET and Sanctuary Stewards
The Sanctuary is enriched by committed volunteers who work to protect and promote it. Two recently-trained volunteer groups were honored at the Sanctuary awards ceremony for their commitment to the Sanctuary: BAY NET, sponsored by the Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) in association with Friends of the Sea Otter, and the Save Our Shores (SOS) Sanctuary Stewards program.
These
two programs offer different, but complementary, volunteer
programs. "Both programs are citizen-based efforts to
enhance the public's awareness of the Sanctuary and promote
long-term stewardship. We want to create a better informed,
more passionate and active constituency for the Sanctuary,"
explains CMC's Rachel Saunders. Vicki Nichols, SOS'
Executive Director, agrees: "They cover distinct areas, and
their manner of outreach is very different, with the result
that the Sanctuary benefits by a more diverse base of
volunteer educators."
The Sanctuary Stewards' focus is the northern part of the Bay, particularly Santa Cruz, with a growing number of events in the Half Moon Bay area. Stewards take their training out into the community, giving slide presentations, hosting interpretive beach clean-ups, staffing interpretive displays and responding to the SOS hotline (1-800-9SHORES). Each steward also prepared an individual outreach project, ranging from the creation of children's teaching tools to studying the possibility of establishing a land trust to protect wetlands in the Half Moon Bay area.
Laura Torre, a Sanctuary Steward, feels "it's important to have marine educators interacting with the public, teaching about what the Sanctuary is and why we have it. Also, it's exciting to be reaching a lot of kids, to help them appreciate the beauty of the ocean and why it's important to treat it with respect." Torre adds, "NOAA manages the Sanctuary, but their staffing and funding is such that they just can't go out into schools and meet with the public on a frequent basis. That's where volunteers come in."
"BAY
NET (The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Volunteer
Network) is the first program to place trained docents in
the field to talk to people about the Sanctuary," points out
Rachel Saunders. These volunteers act as shorefront docent
educators, staffing waterfront locations in Monterey and
Pacific Grove and talking with residents and visitors about
the area's natural resources. They carry binoculars mounted
on a tri-pod to encourage passers-by to observe the natural
surroundings, and they carry written information on the
Sanctuary to help answer commonly asked questions. Their
shorefront location also allows BAY NET volunteers to help
monitor natural and human activities in the Sanctuary.
BAY NET member Dan Koffman says simply, "It's the best job around." He encounters all kinds of people when he is volunteering, but says they all share an excitement to be in the area, and curiosity about something. "It never fails to amaze me," he continues, "when I point out a basic fact about the Sanctuary, like if you peeled away this layer of water, you'd see a canyon deeper than the Grand Canyon, people just go bananas!" He firmly believes that both programs are doing an important job. "We're not shifting the world on its axis," he says, "but we're making a difference on a one-to-one basis, and you can't do better than that."
Volunteers from both programs have made a significant
contribution to the Sanctuary's outreach efforts, and their
efforts will increase exponentially as future classes are
trained. Rachel Saunders mentions a bumper sticker that
caught her eye that declares, "Volunteers go to Heaven."
Smiling, she adds, "Well, we're looking for a few good women
and men to do their service here on earth, as on-site
interpreters and ambassadors for the Sanctuary!" 
Both programs are looking for more volunteers, so please contact:
BAY NET: Rachel Saunders (408/375-4509) or Milos Radakovich (408/373-6396)
Sanctuary Stewards: Lorraine Riversong (408/462-9122)
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