SECTIONS 71500 - California Statutes

PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE

SECTION 71500

71500. (a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) The Pacific Ocean and its rich marine living resources are of
great environmental, economic, aesthetic, recreational, educational,
scientific, social, cultural, and historic importance to the people
of California.
(2) California's marine living resources depend on a healthy
marine environment, which comprises open coastal waters as well as
coastal estuaries, wetlands, rivers and streams, and lands within the
coastal zone.
(3) Overfishing, coastal pollution, and other unsustainable marine
activities have damaged marine fisheries, habitats, and ecosystems.
Programs are needed to conserve, protect, restore, and enhance the
marine resources of the state and to improve the environmental
sustainability of marine-related activities and encourage those
activities that are environmentally sustainable. These programs
should be focused on, and coordinated with, efforts to reduce
overfishing and coastal pollution and to support sustainable marine
activities and improve the sustainability of all marine activities.
(4) The State of California recognizes the need to formulate its
coastal and ocean resource management policies based on the best
readily available scientific information and should utilize the
University of California, the California State University, other
institutions of higher learning, and marine science research
institutions to the extent feasible to assist it in achieving that
goal.
(5) The California Ocean Resources Management Act of 1990 is
designed to ensure that the state's ocean resources are managed,
conserved, and enhanced in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
The California Ocean Protection Act furthered that mission by
establishing the Ocean Protection Council, whose duties include
coordination of state activities to protect coastal waters and ocean
ecosystems, establishment of a science advisory team of distinguished
scientists from a range of disciplines related to coastal and ocean
resources, and contracting with the California Ocean Science Trust
and other academic and nonprofit organizations to carry out
scientific and educational activities consistent with that act.
(6) The ability of the state to carry out the mission of the
California Ocean Protection Act is constrained by the availability of
funds appropriated in the state budget.
(7) It is in the interest of the people of the state to establish
an endowment, which would be independent of the state's budget
process and would impose no cost on the General Fund of the state, to
provide a stable and ongoing source of funding in perpetuity to
conserve, protect, restore, and enhance the marine resources of the
state in a manner that is consistent with the California Ocean
Protection Act.