Bush Signs Act to Improve Aquatic Resources
President George W. Bush has signed the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEALU), which includes language reauthorizing the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund (ARTF), better known as Wallop Breaux. ARTF provides approximately $600 million per year to boating safety, infrastructure and access programs, sport fish restoration and other important boating programs, and its reauthorization has been a priority to the boating community.

Most significantly, the language includes a recapture of the entire 18.3 cent gasoline tax attributable to motorboats, which will mean more than $110 million additional dollars each year for boating safety and fish restoration programs. Currently only 13.5 cents of the 18.3 cents collected on each gallon of motor-boat fuel is transferred to the ARTF; this reauthorization deposits the entire 18.3 cents into the trust fund.

“NMMA is proud to have been part of a coalition that helped not only get the trust fund reauthorized, but helped ensure the entire 18.3 cents a gallon of fuel tax boaters pay was recaptured into the ARTF where it belongs,” said NMMA Vice President of Government Relations Monita Fontaine.

“The programs funded by the trust fund are monumentally important to the recreational boating community,” added NMMA President Thom Dammrich. “Everything from providing better water access through more and improved boat ramps and docks to more pump-out stations and improving the stocks of important game fish will add to the boating experience and the economic health of the boating industry.”

“The programs supported by ARTF will benefit Americans for years to come,” said Fontaine. “This reauthorization will mean over $600 million annually to boating access efforts, safety programs, and wildlife restoration projects. The increased funding will benefit all boaters, anglers, boat and accessory manufacturers, marina operators, state and local governments and all Americans who enjoy our nation’s waterways.”

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State of the Kelp Report Published
The first “State of the Kelp” Report from California Coastkeeper Alliance details the accomplishments of the first three years of the Alliance’s Giant Kelp Restoration Program in the Southern California Bight. As described in the Report, from 2001 through 2004 project biologists and almost 200 volunteer scuba divers restored 10,500 square meters of kelp beds in the Bight and educated 6,825 schoolchildren from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Thriving kelp canopies have formed from the Kelp Project’s efforts in as little as eight months, and up to 100-fold increases in fish density and 20 percent increases in fish species diversity have been observed in the restored areas.

“Fully one-fourth of California marine organisms depend on the kelp forests at some part of their life history,” noted Linda Sheehan, Executive Director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance. “Yet pollution, overfishing, El Niño events and other man-made and natural threats have reduced the giant kelp canopies in the Southern California Bight by more than 70 percent over the last several decades. Intervention through efforts such as the Giant Kelp Restoration Project is essential to restore these vital marine habitats.”

“The Kelp Project benefits kelp forests off Orange County not only directly through restoration work, but also indirectly through the increased awareness and knowledge passed on by Project volunteers in Orange County,” said Dirk Burcham, Project Manger for the Giant Kelp Project.

In Orange County, 4,500 square meters of kelp beds were restored during the first three years of the Project, involving over 4,400 plantings of kelp. Staff and volunteers educated over 50,000 people in the classroom and at public outreach events about the Giant Kelp beds off Orange County’s coast as part of the Project.

The Kelp Restoration Project began with a grant from NOAA’s Community-based Restoration Program and donations from the California Coastal Conservancy, Regional Water Boards, foundations, local businesses and private donors. The release of the State of the Kelp Report closely follows a new NOAA grant award of $212,155 to California Coastkeeper Alliance for the beginning of the next three-year partnership to help restore Southern California’s underwater giant kelp forests, as well as a new partnership between the Alliance and the state Coastal Conservancy, which recently approved a matching grant for the Kelp Project of $200,000 from Proposition 40 bond funds.

The California Coastkeeper Alliance coordinates and supports the work of local California Waterkeeper programs from Humboldt Bay to San Diego in an effort to provide a statewide voice for safeguarding California’s waters, and its world-renowned coast and ocean, for the benefit of all Californians and for California’s future. For more information, visit www.cacoastkeeper.org online.

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Photo Display at CMA
A special display of photography will be at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (CMA) featuring photographer Gary Florin, staff photographer for CMA. The photos show in dazzling artistic form animals found at CMA and the nearby tide-pools, beaches and offshore in local waters. Exhibit will run from through January 6th, 2006 and is offered at no cost, other than Cabrillo Marine Aquarium’s suggested donation of $5.00 per adult and $1 per child or senior.

Cabrillo Marine Aquarium is located at 3720 Stephen M. White Drive in San Pedro. The Aquarium is a facility of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

For further information, please call (310) 548-7562 or visit our web site at www.cabrilloaq.org

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NOGI Awards
The 2005 NOGI Awards Banquet is scheduled for Thursday, October 6th, from 5 to 8 p.m., in the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel Ballrooms D & E. The NOGI Awards will be presented to Guy Harvey (Arts), Dr. Paul Dayton (Science), Armand “Zig” Zigahn (Sports and Education), and Henri Delauze (Distinguished Service). In addition, internationally acclaimed marine artist, Wyland, will present his Wyland ICON Award to Dr. Eugenie Clark and pay tribute to Dr. Hans and Lotte Hass

The NOGI Awards Banquet is an elegant affair that will include a cocktail reception, open bar, gourmet dinner, and silent auction. To add to the festivities, internationally acclaimed artists, Wyland and Guy Harvey, will be painting on stage and conducting a live auction of their art.

More information about the NOGI Awards and AUAS can be found at www.auas-nogi.org. For specifics on the awards banquet, call Mike Gower, (408) 286-8840.

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