About 75 NOAA employees and community supporters and partners recently celebrated a new mural on the exterior of the NOAA Fisheries Pacific Grove facility. The mural, titled Green Sea/Blue Sea: The California Current, Climate Change, and Sustainable Fisheries, illustrates how the California Current ecosystem responds to changes in climate and ocean conditions. Guest speakers included Congressman Sam Farr, Pacific Grove Mayor Dan Cort, Tim Thomas (Monterey Maritime and History Museum), Norm Bartoo (Acting Director, Southwest Fisheries Science Center), and artists Ray Troll and Roberto Salas. A number of honored guests either assisted in the completion of the project or inspired the mural's images. This included 90-year old Roy Hatori, who as a former hard-hat abalone diver is part of Monterey Bay's rich fishing heritage.
Using green shades to represent high ocean productivity and blue for low productivity, visitors can see the different species that flourish as ocean conditions change. These alternating climate regimes are most closely identified with sudden and dramatic shifts between regional fisheries such as the California sardine and northern anchovy. This is illustrated in the mural by the changing composition of fish, marine mammals, and sea turtles whose presence and abundance in Monterey Bay, and adjacent waters of the California Current, are directly tied to these regimes and to the sardine and anchovy on which many feed.
The nearly 400-foot mural was created by renowned artist Ray Troll and painted on 32 separate panels by public artist Roberto Salas and his team, and is the fourth designated by the city of Pacific Grove’s Historical Mural Project. The project was funded by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center and by a grant from NOAA’s Preserve America Initiative Grants (PAIG), and is part of a multi-year project to educate students, residents, tourists, and policy makers about our local fishing heritage and NOAA’s role in sustaining these resources for future generations.
Click on the following links for more information and images:
(1) Mural website: http://swfsc.noaa.gov/pg-mural.aspx
(2) Mural flyer: Green Sea/Blue Sea: The California Current, Climate Change, and Sustainable Fisheries
(3) TV coverage about the mural:
"Fisheries Protection" (KION 46 news)
http://www.kionrightnow.com/Global/story.asp?s=9340279
"Fisheries Protection" (KCBA 35 news)
http://www.kcba.com/Global/story.asp?S=9340279
