IMPORTANT USER ALERT (2 July 2024): This past weekend, a storage server at NOAA's Center for Satellite Applications and Research, which delivers the NOAA Coral Reef Watch data, suffered a hardware failure. The issue is being addressed, and we hope to have the NOAA Coral Reef Watch data back up and running as soon as possible. (1) The most recent data will be made available first; historical data may take time to be restored. (2) If you need specific data that are not yet available, please contact us at coralreefwatch@noaa.gov. (3) If you use code to pull data, please revise your code to use “…/socd/…” in lieu of “…/sod/…” in all relevant web addresses for all future needs. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Mark Trail
(9 July 2006)
Mark Trail (9 July 2006)   

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About Mark Trail

For more than 50 years, soft-spoken comic-strip star and veteran outdoorsman Mark Trail has been teaching people to preserve our natural resources -- woods, water and wildlife -- for future generations. Created by Ed Dodd in 1946 and drawn by Jack Elrod since 1978, Mark Trail appears in 175 newspapers, reaching nearly 23 million readers worldwide. Elrod was honored in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan for his efforts to develop more pride in America.

In addition to a Sunday page in which Mark Trail urged everyone to "reduce carelessness and abusive activity such as littering, vandalism and theft, and wildlife poaching," Mark Trail became one of the official spokescharacters for NOAA, making him the voice of the NOAA National Weather Service and NOAA Weather Radio. Elrod has also produced a variety of materials for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help teach school children respect for the environment.

                       -- Information from www.kingfeatures.com

Credit: A permission for reissuing this art strip of Mark Trail on NOAA's website is granted by King Features Syndicate. We thank King Features Syndicate for this special permission.