NMFS administers the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) programs which support the domestic and international conservation and management of living marine resources. The NMFS, along with the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Marine Mammal Commission, conservation groups, commercial fishers, researchers, animal protection groups, and the Alaska Native community, is responsible for implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

As part of the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's mission is to conserve, protect, and enhance fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. Their major responsibilities include: migratory birds, endangered species, fresh and anadromous fish, the National Wildlife Refuge System, wetlands, conserving habitat, and environmental contaminants.

The mission of the Department of Fish and Game is to manage California's diverse fish, wildlife, and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the public.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act, authorized in 1972, aims to conserve and protect marine mammals through the establishment of the Marine Mammal Commission, the prohibition of certain tuna harvesting practices, and the development of a marine mammal stranding network. The Act was reauthorized by the Marine Mammal Protection Act Amendments of 1994.

This site provides a brief history of the Act while exploring its benefits and shortcomings.

The National Weather Service collects maritime weather data from its buoys positioned along the U.S. coast and publishes the data from this site. This page, covering the southwest coast, presents measurements taken every four hours.

The National Marine Mammal Laboratory Education Web Site provides a wealth of information on Marine Mammals as well as information on careers available in Marine Science.

Hopkins Marine Station is a marine biology research facility that operates as a branch of Stanford University's Department of Biological Sciences. Founded in 1892, the station was the first marine laboratory to be established on the American Pacific coast.

The Long Marine Lab, located in Santa Cruz, California, is a center for research in marine mammal physiology, marine mammal bioenergetics and cognition, marine invertebrate ecology, and marine toxicology.

A unique private oceanographic center, the non-profit Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), was established in 1987 by David Packard (1912-1996) with the goal of developing state-of-the-art equipment, instrumentation, systems, and methods of scientific research in the deep waters of the ocean.

Año Nuevo is a marine mammal rookery where elephant seals, sea lions, and other pinnipeds come ashore to rest, mate, and give birth in the sand dunes or on the beaches and offshore islands.

The Channel Islands National Park consists of 249,353 acres, half of which are under the ocean, and include the islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara. Over 2,000 terrestrial plants and animals can be found within the park. One hundred and forty-five of these are unique to the islands and found nowhere else in the world.

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is our nations's eleventh Marine Sanctuary and the largest. Its protected resources include our nation's most expansive kelp forests, one of North America's largest underwater canyons and the closest-to-shore deep ocean environment in the continental United States.

Just north of San Francisco, this National Marine Sanctuary is 1,235 square miles of nearshore and offshore waters ranging from wetlands and intertidal to pelagic and deep-sea communities. Multiple uses abound, from fishing and sailing to surfing and whale watching. In fact, some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world pass through the Sanctuary into the San Francisco Bay.

In 1980, a 1,252-square-nautical-mile portion of the Santa Barbara Channel was given a special protected status with the designation of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. It encompasses the waters that surround Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara Islands, extending from mean high tide to six nautical miles offshore around each of the five islands. The sanctuary's primary goal is the protection of the natural and cultural resources contained within its boundaries.

The mission of the Florida Keys Sanctuary is to manage, protect and preserve the ecologically diverse marine communities and submerged cultural resources of the Florida Keys.

The Seal Conservation Society works to protect seals, sea lions, and walruses worldwide by promoting the conservation, welfare, and study of the 33 living pinniped species. Besides information on the Society, this site includes pinniped-related news, a list of rehab centers worldwide, links to other web pages on pinnipeds, and a library.

The Society for Marine Mammalogy strives to evaluate and promote the educational, scientific and managerial advancement of marine mammal science. It gathers and disseminates to members of the Society, the public and public and private institutions, scientific, technical and management information related to marine mammals.

The American Cetacean Society (ACS) is the oldest whale conservation group in the world. Founded in 1967, it is a non-profit, volunteer membership organization with regional U.S. chapters and members in 41 countries. ACS seeks to educate through its publications and the development of teaching aids. ACS reports on cetacean research in its journal, Whalewatcher.

The Marine Mammal Center, located in Sausalito, California, provides rescue and rehabilitation services to beached marine mammals from California's central coast to north of San Francisco Bay.

Promoting stewardship and understanding of the rich marine life and unique marine environment of the Central Coast. Located in Piedras Blancas, near San Simeon, Friends of the Elephant Seal is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about elephant seals and other marine life on the Central Coast.

The Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network aims to respond to all marine mammal strandings within the state of Texas, respond to and care for live, stranded animals, perform necropsies and collect selected tissues for scientific research, and maintain both a database and tissues archive for all Texas strandings that are available to other researchers.

Earth Island Institute's (EII) International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) works to make oceans safe for marine mammals worldwide. The Project strives to eliminate dolphin mortality caused by the international tuna fishing industry, to end the use of driftnets, and to stop tuna purse-seine fishers from encircling dolphins in their nets.

The Cetacean Research Unit provides current whale and other marine mammal information on membership and adoption programs, education, conservation, internships, and research.

The purpose of the Monterey Bay Aquarium is to stimulate interest, increase knowledge and promote stewardship of Monterey Bay and the world's ocean environment through innovative exhibits, public education and scientific research.

The Best Laguna Beach Hotels at The Best Rates!

Laguna Beach is Southern California's premier seaside artist haven. Though world famous, Laguna Beach still possesses a unique small-town charm rarely found anywhere else. Quaint cottages framed by subtropical gardens line bluffs above sandy coves along a seven mile picture-postcard coastline. Inland, luxuriant foliage and seaview homes cover canyons and ridges that tower more than 1,000 feet above the ocean. Today, visitors from around the world come to Laguna Beach to enjoy the Pageant of the Masters/Festival of Arts, the Sawdust Festival, Art-A-Fair and the Laguna Beach Film Festival as well as its fine shops, art galleries, restaurants, and hotels, many with breathtaking sunset views. David J. Castello

The Orange County Parrot Head Club is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to gather like-minded people in the appreciation of the tropical attitude depicted by the music and books of Jimmy Buffett. The OCPHC takes great pride in being both a fun group and a group with compassion. To us it is just as natural to listen to a tropical tune, wearing a tropical shirt, as it is to feel for those less fortunate or in need. To be a fan is one thing, to be a compassionate person is something else...we're both!