COOSBAY - The Ocean Policy Advisory Council's Marine Reserve Working Group will meet this month to continue its work on marine reserves.

The meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 22, at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology Boathouse Auditorium in Charleston.

General topics to be discussed included marine reserve objectives and the nomination form the full council talked about at its meeting in Tillamook in July.

The council adopted a goal for marine reserves in July to protect and sustain a network of ecologically-special places in Oregon's territorial sea to conserve marine habitats and biodiversity, provide a framework for scientific research and effectiveness monitoring and minimize possible adverse social and economic impacts on ocean users and ocean-dependent communities. It also defined “network” as a collection of individual sites representative of marine habitats and ecologically significant when taken as a whole.

For more information, those interested can contact Laurel Hillmann by calling (503) 986-0700; or e-mailing laurel.hillmann@state.or.us.