National Estuaries Day on Saturday, September 24

  Saturday is National Estuaries Day.  What do estuaries mean to California?

      The Benefits -  Estuaries in the U.S. provide many environmental, economic and cultural benefits: • They serve as nurseries to over 75% of all fish and shellfish harvested. According to NOAA, the U.S. seafood industry generated more than $166 billion in sales and supported more than a million jobs in 2009.

     California’s commercial fishing industry generated over $20 billion in sales and supported 120,000 jobs in 2009 • Estuaries provide vital habitat for wildlife • Estuaries can filter small amounts of pollutants and runoff • Salt marsh soils and grasses that grow in and around estuaries buffer floods and slow down storm surges, protecting coastal towns • Each year 89 million Americans visit coastal and marine waters The Threat of Climate Change The fine ecological balance of estuaries is threatened by climate change impacts such as: • Changes in freshwater inputs • Changes in temperature of the air and water • Increases in sea level •

    There are more than 50 federally designated estuarine habitats in the U.S. partially protected by two federal programs – the National Estuary Program and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. They include:San Francisco Estuary, Elkhorn Slough, Morro Bay, Santa Monica Bay, and the Tijuana River.

   An estuary is a partially enclosed body of water where two different bodies of water meet and mix • National Estuaries Day is an annual event, first established in 1988, and events will be held across the country to mark it.  For more information, go to www.estuaries.gov.