GIG HARBOR— Eleanor Stopps, whose efforts led to the preservation of Protection Island as a wildlife habitat, died today after a battle with cancer.

Stopps, who was 92, died at 11:08 a.m. with members of her family around her, said Robin Ornelas, a close family friend.

Stopps received the cancer diagnosis in March.

She was a housewife and mother who testified before both the state Legislature and Congress, and persuaded Congress through tireless letter-writing and lobbying over a decade to grant Protection Island national wildlife refuge status in 1982.

Since 2005, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center has annually given a award in her name: the Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award.

It was Stopps’ wish that no services be held at the time of her death, Ornelas said.

Her ashes will be spread on the grounds of her former home on Mats Mats Bay, she said.