BILL NUMBER: AB 2125	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 5, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Ruskin

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2010

   An act to add  Section 36950   Sections 35620
and 35621  to the Public Resources Code, relating to coastal
resources.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2125, as amended, Ruskin. Coastal resources: marine spatial
planning.
   Existing law declares it is the policy of the state to assess the
long-term values and benefits of the conservation and development of
ocean resources and uses with the objective of restoring or
maintaining the health of the ocean ecosystem and ensuring the proper
management of renewable and nonrenewable resources. 
   This bill would require the Ocean Protection Council to support
interagency collaboration and management of geospatial information to
identify priority uses and address user conflicts in the ocean
environment, and analyze and develop recommendations on marine
spatial planning.  
   Existing law requires the Ocean Protection Council to coordinate
activities of state agencies that are related to the protection and
conservation of coastal waters and ocean ecosystems to improve the
effectiveness of state efforts to protect ocean resources within
existing fiscal limitations, to establish policies to coordinate the
collection, evaluation, and sharing of scientific data related to
coastal and ocean resources among agencies, and to identify and
recommend to the Legislature changes in law needed to achieve these
goals.  
   This bill would, consistent with the above goals and subject to
the availability of funding, require the Ocean Protection Council, to
support state agencies' use and sharing of scientific and geospatial
information for coastal- and ocean-relevant decisionmaking,
including marine spatial planning, by taking specified actions, to
assess the needs of California's public agencies with respect to
their abilities to gather, manage, use, and share information and
decision-support tools relevant to ecosystem-based management, and to
develop recommendations that address specified aspects of
ecosystem-based marine spatial planning in the state.  
   The bill would require each state agency, board, department, or
commission with ocean or coastal management interests or regulatory
authority to cooperate with the council to achieve all of the
specified goals, to the extent funding is made available and
consistent with each entity's individual mandate. The bill would
authorize the council to award grants, enter into interagency
agreements, and provide assistance to public agencies and nonprofit
organizations to support the achievement of these goals and would
require the council to give preference to public agencies that are
meeting these goals. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:  
   (a) California's ocean and coastal waters are unique and valuable
natural resources that the state holds in trust for the people of
California.  
   (b) The preservation of the state's ocean resources depends on
healthy, productive, and resilient ocean ecosystems.  
   (c) California's coastal and ocean resources are critical to the
state's environmental and economic security, and integral to the
state's high quality of life and culture.  
   (d) Long-term protection and enhancement of California's ocean
resources depends on comprehensive and coordinated ocean management.
 
   (e) (1) Relevant, accessible, and shared scientific and geospatial
information is essential to effective ecosystem-based ocean
management.  
   (2) President Barack Obama has established an Interagency Ocean
Policy Task Force (task force) to develop a national framework for
improved ocean stewardship and a process for effective coastal and
marine spatial planning. The task force has identified scientific
information as a strategic asset that should be developed and managed
on an ongoing basis to meet planning needs. 
   (3) California public agencies need better access to relevant
scientific and geospatial information when making permitting
decisions and conducting long-term planning for the management of
California's coastal and ocean ecosystems. Marine spatial planning is
a potential tool for more effective and comprehensive
ecosystem-based management of California's oceans.  
   (f) Future uses of state waters present new threats and increased
cumulative impacts. The state seeks appropriate information and
management measures to ensure that these uses contribute positively
to the state and do not cause unnecessary user conflicts or adverse
impacts to our valuable coastal and marine resources.  
   (g) Effective ecosystem-based ocean management is enhanced by the
state's use of scientific and geospatial information related to
California's coastal and ocean ecosystems.  
   (h) Effective ecosystem-based ocean management is advanced by
human and technological resources that support the strategic use of
scientific and geospatial information by public agencies, users of
coastal and ocean ecosystems, and the public. These resources
include, but are not limited to, all of the following:  
   (1) Education and training of existing staff.  
   (2) New and retained staff members with training in geographic
information systems and other relevant disciplines.  
   (3) Information discovery and search tools that facilitate
information gathering and sharing.  
   (4) Decision-support tools that convey planning-relevant
information to decisionmakers, users, and the public, and assist them
with making planning decisions.  
   (i) The Ocean Protection Council was created to, among other
things, coordinate activities of state agencies that are related to
the protection and conservation of coastal waters and ocean
ecosystems to improve the effectiveness of state efforts to protect
ocean resources. 
   SEC. 2.    Section 35620 is added to the  
Public Resources Code   , to read:  
   35620.  (a) Consistent with this chapter, and subject to the
availability of funding, the council shall support state agencies'
use and sharing of scientific and geospatial information for coastal-
and ocean-relevant decisionmaking, including marine spatial
planning, by taking all of the following actions:
   (1) Assess the needs of California's public agencies with respect
to their abilities to gather, manage, use, and share information and
decision-support tools relevant to ecosystem-based management.
   (2) Increase the amount of baseline scientific and geospatial
information that is available to public agencies with respect to the
following aspects of coastal and ocean ecosystems:
   (A) Ecosystem health, functioning, productivity, resilience, and
vulnerability to threats.
   (B) The effects of climate change.
   (C) The cumulative effects of human-caused and natural sources of
stress.
   (D) Existing and predicted patterns of human activities, including
activities that present conflicting or compatible demands on coastal
and ocean ecosystems or those that require the use of a
precautionary approach.
   (E) Social, economic, and cultural values, including the value of
coastal and ocean ecosystems for providing ecosystem services.
   (F) Other physical, biological, economic, social, and cultural
information that the council determines is relevant to marine spatial
planning.
   (3) Support public agencies' collaborative management and use of
scientific and geospatial information relevant to ecosystem-based
management.
   (4) Help identify decision-support tools relevant to
ecosystem-based management, and, where appropriate, support the
adaptation of those tools or the creation of new tools to serve the
state's needs.
   (b) Subject to the availability of funding, the council shall
consider ecosystem-based marine spatial planning as a tool for
achieving effective and comprehensive management of California's
ocean resources and develop recommendations that address all of the
following aspects of ecosystem-based marine spatial planning in the
state:
   (1) Ecosystem health, functioning, productivity, resilience, and
vulnerability to threats.
   (2) The effects of climate change.
   (3) The cumulative effects of human-caused and natural sources of
stress.
   (4) Existing and predicted patterns of human activities, including
activities that present conflicting or compatible demands on coastal
and ocean ecosystems.
   (5) Social, economic, and cultural values, including the value of
coastal and ocean ecosystems for providing ecosystem services.
   (6) Other physical, biological, economic, social, and cultural
issues that the council determines are relevant to marine spatial
planning.
   (c) To the extent funding is made available for their
participation, and consistent with their individual mandates, each
agency, board, department, or commission of the state with ocean or
coastal management interests or regulatory authority shall cooperate
with the council to achieve all of the goals described in
subdivisions (a) and (b). 
   SEC. 3.    Section 35621 is added to the 
Public Resources Code   , to read:  
   35621.  Consistent with the council's authority and responsibility
under this chapter to coordinate activities of state agencies with
ocean or coastal management interests or regulatory authority, to
improve the effectiveness of state efforts to protect ocean
resources, and to establish policies to coordinate the collection and
sharing of scientific data related to coastal and ocean resources
among agencies, the council may award grants, enter into interagency
agreements, and provide assistance to public agencies and nonprofit
organizations to support this effort, including grants to improve
geospatial data collection, interagency data sharing and
collaboration, and tools for visualizing and analyzing these data. In
allocating grants and assistance, the council shall give preference
to public agencies that are meeting the goals described in Section
35620.  
  SECTION 1.    Section 36950 is added to the Public
Resources Code, to read:
   36950.  Consistent with Section 30960 and this chapter, the
council shall support interagency collaboration and management of
geospatial information to identify priority uses and address user
conflicts in the ocean environment, and analyze and develop
recommendations on marine spatial planning, including planning
principles and objectives.