MPA Exhibit Panels for Morro Bay Museum of Natural History

December, 2022

Version 1

An MPA Compliance Small Grant project by the San Luis Obispo Collaborative resulted in three new exhibit panels for the outside deck of the Morro Bay State Park Museum of Natural History that highlight area MPAs, local tribes, common species, and ways to engage. Interpretive text on the panels is presented in English and Spanish. Content and language were generously shared by the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe and the Salinan Tribe for inclusion on the panels. Accompanying the new exhibit panels will be a Coast Snap community/citizen science station where participants can capture photos that look at tidal fluctuations and sea level rise of the estuary over time, informing estuary MPA monitoring efforts of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory.

This project was made possible by a grant made through the Once-Through Cooling program of Resources Legacy Fund, on behalf of the Once-Through Cooling Interim Mitigation Program of the Ocean Protection Council. This project is part of the MPA Collaborative Networks’ multi-year MPA Compliance Initiative and was entirely driven by local input through the Community Compliance Forums held in 2020 and subsequent collaborative meetings.