OIMB's Charleston Marine Life Center gets funding bonus

The Charleston Marine Life Center – a museum planned as part of the UO's Oregon Institute of Marine Biology – received an unexpectedly generous contribution this week from the Coos County Board of Commissioners.

OIMB Director Craig Young went to the board seeking $120,000 in economic development funding from Oregon Lottery proceeds. But commissioners instead voted 2-1 to contribute $151,896 toward what is projected as a $981,000 construction project.

"We can promise that you'll enjoy it even if you're not a newcomer to the area," Young told commissioners, according to a story in the Coos Bay World.

The Charleston Marine Life Center has been under construction for more than two years and is planned for completion by the end of this year. It is expected to draw thousands of visitors annually and produce hundreds of thousands of dollars in tourist dollars for the community.

The 6,000-square-foot, two-story center is envisioned as a small but engaging museum/aquarium on the campus of the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. It will be perched on the edge of the bay, overlooking Charleston Harbor and its populations of seals and sea lions, and its active seafood industry.

The museum is intended to serve as the OIMB's focal point for community outreach and education programs.

It will attract tourists, provide an educational resource for local and regional children, offer interpretive materials and promote responsible environmental stewardship. Plans call for the center to eventually be connected to the nearby Oregon Coast Trail.

The UO will own and provide operating funds for the new center, whose five galleries will focus on a variety of local marine environments. Its displays will include skeletons of a California gray whale and an orca, living marine organisms and mollusks ranging in size from snails to giant squid.

All three Coos County commissioners were supportive of the new center, but Commissioner John Sweet voted against funding the project.