AltaSea, the marine research campus at the Port of Los Angeles, received a $1 million check on Friday, July 7, and the federal funding will help pay for ocean STEM labs for college research teams, along with other advancements.
The funding from Congress’s 2023 Omnibus Budget Agreement, which U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragan, D-San Pedro, presented as a check, will provide post-secondary, ocean-based research and equipment aimed at finding solutions to climate change.
Of particular importance to AltaSea is highlighting and furthering what is known as the blue economy, which harnesses sustainable ocean resources for economic growth and job creation — while preserving marine ecosystems.
“Everywhere I go,” Barragan said in her remarks, “I hear about the blue economy.”
The funding was the latest boon in an accelerated push, under AltaSea CEO Terry Tamminen, to move the ambitious project along.
But that wasn’t the sole highlight on Friday.
State Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, also helped launch the AltaSeads Conservancy on Friday to develop a nonprofit organization for kelp restoration, breeding, farming, education and outreach.
Friday’s event, which drew some 100 guests, also provided a look at $19 million in other recent renovations underway on the campus.
And AltaSea hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s new laboratories and field office at the marine science research center on San Pedro’s working waterfront.
For the past several months, the state agency has been operating a laboratory in a shipping container within the main warehouses to test the area’s caught fish for harmful pollutants.
The agency’s Los Angeles County office and lab has been in the Port of L.A. — on Terminal Island — for some 100 years, but now will be located at AltaSea officially.
“We’re excited to be in partnership with AltaSea,” said Michelle Horeczko, senior environmental scientist for the state…
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