NOAA Names Recipient for Nancy Foster Award

NOAA NAMES NANCY FOSTER AWARD RECIPIENT FOR HABITAT CONSERVATION National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has named Elliott A. Norse as the 2006 recipient of the Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation. NOAA announced the award at the annual American Fisheries Society meeting in Lake Placid, N.Y. The Nancy Foster Award is given for excellence in service to habitat conservation. The first award was presented to Foster, the renowned conservationist, in 1997 for her outstanding contributions to NOAA activities and her personal commitment to public and private programs to protect, conserve and restore coastal and marine habitats. The award has been presented six times since 1997. Norse, who is president and chief executive officer of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue, Wash., received the award this year for his life-long dedication in the private sector and the federal government to marine ecology and biology habitat conservation. Norse's efforts have benefited the nation and the world. Dr. Norse was honored for his work in the sciences, his numerous technical publications and books, and his educational presentations to diverse audiences. He is known widely as an enthusiastic champion of the oceans, much like Foster herself.

Norse founded The Marine Conservation Biology Institute in 1996. MCBI is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the new science of marine conservation biology and to securing the protection, recovery and sustainable use of marine ecosystems. Among MCBI's interests are the effects of fishing on marine habitats, funding for federal ocean programs and expanded use of marine protected areas. Norse and his MCBI colleagues are heralded in the citation for the award as innovators, motivators, visionaries, critics and facilitators.