Courtesy Photo Pictured in this photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is part of the newly designated Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary coastline.

ALPENA — A free lecture titled West Coast National Marine Sanctuary Challenges and the Conservation Opportunities That Could Help will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for this presentation by William (Bill) Douros, recently retired NOAA Sanctuaries West Coast regional director.

He will discuss the key opportunities and challenges facing the U.S. West Coast marine ecosystem. He will also talk about leading the process of designating the newest marine sanctuary, Chumash Heritage.

“I’m going to be talking about some of the important opportunities and issues that face the West Coast of the United States,” Douros said. “There’s a big marine ecosystem out here, including the marine sanctuaries that are here. And I’m also going to talk about the newly complete, only a week ago, designation for a new marine sanctuary called Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.”

Douros, formerly of Michigan, retired this summer after nearly 27 years with the federal government. He spent his career at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, serving as superintendent of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, as the first West Coast regional director, and for two years as the acting deputy director for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

Before coming to NOAA, he worked for 13 years as the deputy director for the Santa Barbara County Planning Department. He was responsible for managing offshore oil and gas development in that county. He also spent two summers as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service, which he describes as the best job he ever had.

Douros has a master’s degree in marine ecology and a bachelor’s in environmental biology, both from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“Climate change has been and continues to be a big problem,” Douros said. “Ways that we can see changes are die-offs in some species. For instance, we had a big die-off in kelp. Kelp is a foundational species in the marine ecosystem, and there’s a big die-off that’s still slowly recovering in some places.”

He said starfish have been affected as well, which led to a huge increase in sea urchins, who eat a lot of kelp.

“We can see changes going on in species, and sea levels rising, so that’s another impact from climate change,” Douros said. “Storms are having more of an impact.”

He added that the ocean is acidifying, as well.

“When it acidifies, there may ultimately be a point where marine species can’t even exist anymore because the animals with a hard shell, their shells would dissolve,” he said.

He encourages people to reduce their carbon emissions to help thwart the progression of climate change.

“I think we all can slowly make some changes,” he said.

His lecture will focus on more than just climate change, he added.

“A lot of great things are going on, too,” Douros said.

Douros said all the waterways connect, so Michiganders should be concerned about what’s happening in California.

“We’re all connected,” he said. “There’s a direct link between the Great Lakes and what goes on in the Eastern Seaboard. We’re all part of a giant watershed.”

Reach Darby Hinkley at dhinkley@thealpenanews.com, or call 989-358-5691.