The Ocean Climate Center officially opened on October 26, at the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
On October 26, NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary opened its new Ocean Climate Center in San Francisco. The Ocean Climate Center will serve as an ocean and climate change communication center for the Bay Area and facilitate the exchange of technical, scientific, policy, and education information and ideas.
The Center will bring together a diversity of knowledge and expertise among several federal, state, and local agencies and other academic and non-profit partners to identify, assess, and address the effects of climate variability and climate change on the sanctuary and the surrounding marine region from Sonoma to Santa Cruz County.
Staff at the new Ocean Climate Center will work collaboratively with NOAA’s world-renowned climate scientists and experts. The center will also help to inform the public about how climate variability and climate change may affect ocean ecosystems through a variety of outreach programs and information.
The first joint project of this consortium, "Preparing for Sea Level Rise along the San Francisco Bay Area's Outer Coast," was announced at the opening ceremony. The Farallones Sanctuary, U.S. Geological Survey, and PRBO Conservation Science will assess coastal vulnerability to sea level rise and extreme storm events along the Bay Area's outer coastline, and develop a web-based decision support tool and interactive maps for local resource managers, planners, and decision makers.
The Farallones Sanctuary will use the center to promote partnerships within the greater San Francisco Bay and Northern-Central Coast area to share resources and knowledge and to work together to address this and other effects of climate change in the region.Designated in 1981, the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary encompasses nearly 1,300 square miles (3,367 square kilometers) of ocean and coastal waters beyond San Francisco’s Golden Gate. The sanctuary supports the largest breeding seabird rookery in the contiguous United States and other sensitive species such as whales, sea turtles, and white sharks.