LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1217, as amended, Monning. Ocean Protection Council:
sustainable seafood.
The California Ocean Protection Act establishes the Ocean
Protection Council in state government and provides that the council
consists of the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, the
Secretary for Environmental Protection, the Chair of the State Lands
Commission, and 2 public members appointed by the Governor. The act
requires the council, among other things, to coordinate activities of
state agencies that are related to the protection and conservation
of coastal waters and ocean ecosystems and to establish policies to
coordinate the collection and sharing of scientific data related to
coast and ocean resources between agencies.
The act also creates the California Ocean Protection Council Trust
Fund in the State Treasury and authorizes moneys deposited in the
fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be expended by the
council for projects and activities authorized by the council
consistent with the purposes of the act.
This bill would require the council to develop and implement a
specified voluntary sustainable seafood promotion program. The
program would, among other things, consist of a protocol to guide
entities on how to be independently certified to internationally
accepted standards for sustainable seafood, as defined, and
a marketing assistance program, and a competitive
grant and loan program. It would prohibit seafood produced
through aquaculture or fish farming from being certified as
sustainable under these provisions until nationally or
internationally accepted sustainability standards have been developed
and implemented.
The bill also would provide that moneys in the trust fund may be
expended for grants or loans to a private entity for projects or
activities that further public purposes consistent with the voluntary
sustainable seafood promotion program.