84th AMS Annual Meeting

Monday, 12 January 2004: 9:45 AM
Environmental Education in NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries
Room 615/616
Michiko J. Martin, NOAA, Silver Spring, MD
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Sanctuary (NMS) Program serves as the trustee for a system of thirteen underwater parks, encompassing more than 18,000 square miles of America's marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington State to the Florida Keys, and from Lake Huron to American Samoa. Since passage of the National Marine Sanctuary Act in 1972, the sanctuary program has worked cooperatively with the public and its partners to protect and manage sanctuaries while facilitating compatible commercial and recreational activities. The NMS Education Program enhances public awareness, understanding and appreciation of the national marine sanctuaries through programs such as telepresence, an initiative that integrates live video camera feeds with data streams as diverse as student-collected observations, satellite records, and measurements collected by monitoring stations in the marine sanctuaries. Including both formal and informal educational activities, the NMS Education Program teaches conservation and sustainable public uses of the sanctuaries in the classroom, at sea, and in the field. This presentation will describe various exciting environmental literacy initiatives that NOAA supports through its National Marine Sanctuary Program.

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