The Laguna San Ignacio Ecosystem Science Program wants to wish all of you the very best for the Holiday Season, and hope for a peaceful and productive New Year in 2015.
This time of year finds our researchers preparing to leave their universities and homes to travel to Laguna San Ignacio for the upcoming winter gray whale field research. We expect to open our field laboratory by mid-January to greet the arriving gray whales and begin annual surveys.
We are pleased to welcome to the LSIESP Dra. Georgina Brabata Domínguez and her students from the Departamento Académico de Biología Marina Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur. Dra. Brabata will begin a new series of surveys to evaluate the status of the marine birds at Laguna San Ignacio for comparison with avian surveys conducted in previous years.
We are also re-designing our program’s website, to give it a new look and to be more responsive to you and our supporters via the social media features that are now available for communication and outreach. We plan to launch our new website early in 2015, so be on the lookout for that announcement.
If you are thinking about a holiday gift idea, please consider giving your family & friends a copy of “Lagoon Time: Guide to the Gray Whales and Natural History of Laguna San Ignacio” (see announcement at http://lsiecosystem.org/2014/05/now-available-just-published/). Copies of “Lagoon Time” may be purchased from local book dealers, on amazon.com, or directly from Sunbelt Books in El Cajon, California (http://www.sunbeltbook.com/about-us). Proceeds from all book sales go to support our research program at Laguna San Ignacio.
Finally, as we approach the New Year we hope that you will consider making an “end of the year” tax deductible donation to our research program at Laguna San Ignacio. It is easy and safe to make your donation on-line by clicking on the “Donations” tab at the top of this page. Or, you may send a check made out to “The Ocean Foundation – LSIESP” and send it to: The Ocean Foundation, 1320 19th Street, N.W., 5th Floor, Washington D.C. 20036.
We are looking forward to the winter 2015 field research and want to thank all of our supporters for making it possible for the LSIESP to continue its mission to monitor and report on the ecological status of Laguna San Ignacio that supports the protection and conservation of this very unique place, its marine wildlife and the local community that works to ensure future.
We hope to see you this year at Laguna San Ignacio!
Steven Swartz and Jorge Urban R., Directors
