MSI Turns 40!
In 1970, Robert Rutherford had a vision of creating a more educated and informed population to care for San Francisco Bay. At the time, the Bay was being used as a garbage dump, quite literally. He created the Marine Science Institute (originally called the Marine Ecological Institute) to address this problem.
Today, we recognize San Francisco Bay as an Estuary of great importance as critical habitat for hundreds of species of plants and animals. These waters are source of fresh water and inspiration for our spirits. And it provides often unseen environmental services, such as natural flood control. In so many ways we all depend upon a healthy bay every day.
MSI has much to celebrate in 2010. It is our 40th anniversary of our founding, and we would like to share some of our history with you, and invite you to be part of our future!
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Discovery Voyage was the first program MSI created. In this unique hands-on learning experience, students perform science activities using industry-standard equipment on our research vessel in the San Francisco Bay and Delta. From its launch in 1970, the Discovery Voyage met with great success and remains the premier educational experience about the San Francisco Bay and Delta available to students today.
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MSI Founder Bob Rutherford hauls in a fish survey. |
MSI also started the South San Francisco Bay Monitoring Program which collected data on the fish caught aboard the ship our first year. Today it is the broadest and longest-running wildlife monitoring program on fish populations in the San Francisco Bay. Every week, students and volunteers continue to contribute data and use it for further study into species of the bay.
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Fish Data collecting by MSI Volunteers continues today,
building on the data first tracked in 1970. |
In 1992, MSI created land-based programs that introduce younger students to marine science both at our Redwood City Discovery Lab, and at schools using the Marine Science Mobile Aquarium which transports marine animals to students in their classrooms. Two years later, MSI developed a Summer Marine Camp for local children to have a more in-depth summer adventure into marine science. This past year, the camp served 1,200 children in 9 weeks, and has emerged as an earned revenue source to support MSI’s school programs.
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In 1998, MSI successfully raised the funds to build a new ship, the Robert G. Brownlee, specifically for delivering the Discovery Voyage. The new ship doubled MSI’s capacity for providing Discovery Voyages. Recent improvements and new classification by the Coast Guard allow MSI to run Ecotours on board, a potential source of earned revenue.
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The Robert G. Brownlee and MSI's first vesel, the Inland Seas |
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MSI served about 4,000 students in its first year. About to celebrate 40 years of hands-on environmental science education, MSI has developed more than 700,000 people into more conscientious stewards of the environment and inspired generations of students to envision their futures as scientists. Through all of our programs and activities combined, MSI achieved its mission with nearly 50,000 students of all ages in the 2008-09 program year.
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MSI's Executive Director Marilou Seiff, with past Executive Director Jeff Rutherford, and founder Bob Rutherford. |
Stay up to date with MSI as we celebrate throughout the year. All new members will receive our beautiful 2010 Translating the Tides calendar. It's not only full of inspiring student art and poetry, but also includes MSI events and tide information. Individual copies can be purchased too, while they last.
On January 23rd come on down for our kick-off celebration at our first Aquarium Spotlight of the year! This free event is a great way to explore the amazing animals in our aquarium, learn from our staff and docents, and see what MSI is all about.
April 17th is our annual Earth Day on the Bay! An explosive gathering 2500 people came down last year to dance, paddle, boat, make crafts and get down to eye level with our sharks, stars and other cool marine life!
Celebrate the 4th of July at MSI! Our beach and picnic tables are the perfect spot to take in the fireworks exploding over Redwood Creek & the Bay.
More events are planned! Make sure to check our web site and Baylines newsletter events page for the latest news!
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