Port of Los Angeles Executive
Director Geraldine Knatz has been named the 2012 recipient of the Blue Frontier
Campaign’s Peter Benchley Ocean Award for “excellence in solutions” for her environmental
efforts as executive director of the Port of Los Angeles and her role as president
of the International Association of Ports and Harbors.
She received the award during
a June 1 ceremony in San Francisco.
The Blue Frontier Campaign
is a national marine conservation activist organization working to improve ocean
policies in coastal states. The Peter Benchley Award is named after marine wildlife
conservationist Peter Benchley, who’s best known for writing the bestselling novel
“Jaws,” which was first published in 1974.
Additionally during the
ceremony, a posthumous award was given to Peter Douglas, the creator and longtime
executive director of the California Coastal Commission. Douglas, who died in April,
will be honored with the “Hero of the Seas” award for assuring public access to
and protection of California’s 1,100 miles of coastline.
Others receiving awards
during Blue Frontier’s 2012 ceremonies include U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
for advocating for ocean protection in the United States Senate; Internet company
Google for making ocean exploration possible via its Google Earth virtual globe
program; and Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine
Consortium, who was honored for working to reduce the upstream causes of the Gulf
of Mexico “dead zone,” a large region that has oxygen concentrations too low to
support aquatic life.
