[Approved by Governor September 14, 2016. Filed with Secretary of State September 14, 2016.]
AB 2139, Williams. Ocean Protection Council: ocean acidification and hypoxia.
Existing law establishes the Ocean Protection Council in state government and prescribes the membership, functions, and duties of the council with regard to the protection and conservation of ocean and coastal resources.
This bill would, subject to the availability of funding, authorize the council to develop an ocean acidification and hypoxia science task force to ensure that council decisionmaking is supported by the best available science, and require the council to take specified actions to address ocean acidification and hypoxia, as prescribed, and, beginning January 1, 2018, and annually thereafter, at its first meeting of the year, adopt recommendations for further actions that may be taken to address ocean acidification and hypoxia.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
The Legislature finds and declares both of the following:
(a) The West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel was a binational collaboration of leading scientists from California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia that was convened at the request of the Ocean Protection Council and the California Ocean Science Trust. The West Coast Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel’s executive summary report outlines findings, recommendations, and actions to address ocean acidification and hypoxia.
(b) The mission of the Ocean Protection Council is to ensure that California maintains healthy, resilient, and productive ocean and coastal ecosystems for the benefit of current and future generations. In order to do this, the council should address the challenge of ocean acidification.
Section 35631 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:
(a) Subject to the availability of funding, the council may develop an ocean acidification and hypoxia science task force to ensure that decisionmaking is supported by the best available science.
(b) Subject to the availability of funding, the council shall do both of the following:
(1) Take actions to address ocean acidification and hypoxia, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Implement measures to facilitate climate change adaptation in the ocean, consistent with subdivision (c) of Section 71154.
(B) Develop, refine, and integrate predictive models that identify the relative contributions of global and local drivers of ocean acidification and hypoxia in California waters.
(C) Work with other agencies to coordinate and ensure that criteria and standards for coastal water health to address ocean acidification and hypoxia are developed and informed by the best available science.
(D) Develop a comprehensive inventory of areas in California vulnerable to ocean acidification and hypoxia.
(E) Facilitate agreements with other national, state, and regional governments and private entities to establish and advance joint priorities for ocean acidification and hypoxia research.
(F) In coordination with relevant federal, state, and academic entities, identify gaps between the monitoring of ocean acidification and hypoxia and management needs, and the actions necessary to address these gaps.
(2) Beginning January 1, 2018, and annually thereafter, at its first meeting of the year, adopt recommendations for further actions that may be taken to address ocean acidification and hypoxia.
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