Meeting on ocean health in Bodega Bay on Wednesday

A five-year study of California’s North Central Coast and all the diversity and variability that entails will be the topic of a community meeting Wednesday night at the Bodega Bay Grange Hall in Sonoma County.

The 5:30 p.m. meeting is part of an effort to recruit partners and gain public support for monitoring needed to evaluate future change in sensitive coastal areas where fishing and other activities are restricted under the California Marine Life Protection Act.

The North Central Coast runs from Point Arena to Pigeon Point, near Santa Cruz. It is one of four regions established under the 1999 act, which created a network of marine reserves, marine conservation areas and recreational management areas in an effort to safeguard ocean resources and sustain the marine environment.

The five-year report at the center of Wednesday’s meeting is intended to provide a baseline of current ocean health against which future changes can be measured.

The California Ocean Science Trust, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and California Ocean Protection Council will host the session, one of three this week, including a Tuesday night gathering in Gualala and another Thursday night in Half Moon Bay.

The Bodega Bay Grange Hall is located at 1370 Bodega Ave. The meetings run until 7:30 p.m.

More information is available at oceanspaces.org.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.