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Photos by Soren Sum.

Students from the Bret Harte Elementary Student Council helped paint a mural in the shape of a trout today in North Long Beach, with the aim of promoting awareness and growing community support for endangered steelhead trout, according to a release..

The mural design depicts snippets of Long Beach areas, including the port. 

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The overall design is part of a West Coast campaign by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries West Coast Region to bring awareness to local communities about having healthy watersheds for endangered fish such as salmon and the steelhead trout, according to a release. Partnerships for this Long Beach mural included Bret Harte Elementary, Eighth District Councilmember Al Austin’s office and the Arts Council for Long Beach.

“We are very excited to have the participation of students from Bret Harte Elementary,” stated Councilmember Austin, whose council office facilitated the Bret Harte participation. “They will have a tangible connection to this mural for years to come. As part of the process, NOAA will also send a biologist to Harte to teach the students about watershed health and steelhead recovery.”

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“Our hope is that the mural inspires people to take actions that promote a healthy watershed to help steelhead recover from near extinction,“ said Gabrielle Dorr, communications specialist for NOAA Fisheries, in a statement.

More mural designs in the West Coast are to come with adapted versions currently being processed in Oregon and Washington, the release stated.

The North Long Beach mural is located on a stucco wall on the southwest side of the Orange Avenue and Market Street intersection.

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