Contact: Eliot Hurwitz FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 713-3066 2/24/95
As part of the National Estuarine Reserve Program, NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management provides over $100,000 a year in matching funds to Puerto Rico for the research center.
The Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve includes 15 offshore islets known as Cayos Caribe, and the mangrove forest of Mar Negro, with its complex system of lagoons, mud salt flats and channels. Incorporating more than 2.800 acres along the south central coast, the reserve also includes sand beaches, coral reefs, seagrass beds and territorial waters. It is believed that 50 or so West Indian Manatees that forage within Jobos Bay and the Mar Negro and Caribe Islets represent the second largest manatee population in Puerto Rico. Hawk's bill sea turtles are also indigenous to the seagrass beds of Jobos Bay.
The NOAA team visit is part of a routine evaluation process that will include interviews and meetings with local, state and federal agency officials and other interested parties.
The federal NERR program was established under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, which sets forth specific national guidelines and objectives for program participation.
The federal evaluation team will meet with the general public at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources Auditorium, Tropical Medicine building, Puerta de Tierra. Public comment at this meeting is encouraged. Written comments should be sent to Patmarie Maher, NOAA/OCRM, 1305 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Md. 20910, (301) 713-3090, extension 116.