Fisheries Protection - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

PACIFIC GROVE, Calif- The Fisheries Science Center in Pacific Grove Unveiled its facelift Wednesday. A 400 foot mural was painted around the top of the building. Full size sea creatures were created with the hope of showing how oceans effect life.

The Fisheries Science Center is run by NOAA. It recognizes the long and vibrant heritage of fishing, scientific research and management in Monterey Bay and along the entire U.S. west coast. Through the telling of the 100-year legacy of the sardine fishery, the mural illustrates how fish, marine mammals, sea turtles and other marine fauna respond to changes in ocean conditions.

Using different shades of color, green for high ocean productivity, and blue for low ocean productivity, visitors can see the different species that flourish in one regime over another. These alternating climate regimes are most closely identified with sudden and dramatic shifts between regional fisheries for California sardine and northern anchovy. This is illustrated in the mural by changing the composition of fish, marine mammals, and sea turtles whose presence and abundance in Monterey Bay and adjacent waters of the California Current is tied to these regimes and the sardines and anchovies on which many feed.