National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has named Elliott A. Norse as the 2006 recipient of the Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation. NOAA announced the award at the annual American Fisheries Society meeting in Lake Placid, N.Y. The Nancy Foster Award is given for excellence in service to habitat conservation. The first award was presented to Foster, the renowned conservationist, in 1997 for her outstanding contributions to NOAA activities and her personal commitment to public and private programs to protect, conserve and restore coastal and marine habitats. The award has been presented six times since 1997. Norse, who is president and chief executive officer of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue…