Monthly Newsletter – California Coast and Ocean News – February 2025
What’s Happening
Ocean Protection Council Meeting – March 3, 2025 – Teleconference and Public Forum
The next Council Meeting will be Monday, March 3, 2025 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. This is a hybrid meeting via Zoom and at the California Natural Resources Agency Headquarters Auditorium in Sacramento. The agenda is available. The meeting materials will be available on February 21. Visit the Council Meeting webpage for updates.
Public Listening Sessions: 2026-2030 OPC Strategic Plan
Share your priorities to inform OPC’s draft 2026-2030 Strategic Plan! Join us for our final public listening session which will be in Long Beach on Tuesday, February 18. 2025. You can also complete the online feedback form by Friday, February 21, 2025. Learn more and register for a session.
Black History Month
The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) and its supporting departments, invite you to celebrate Black History Month with us. Through virtual and in-person events, we are honoring Black leaders in the environmental field, who work to protect the environment for current and future generations and encourage others to become environmental stewards. Visit CNRA’s Black History Month webpage.
Funding Opportunities
SB 1 Sea Level Rise Adaptation Planning Grant Program
The next submission deadline is Friday, March 21, 2025 for sea level rise adaptation planning projects. Learn more about the SB 1 Grant Program.
CalEPA Environmental Justice Action Grants Program
CalEPA administers the Program as part of its overall mission to restore, protect, and enhance the environment to ensure public health, environmental quality, and economic vitality. The submission deadline is Friday, February 28, 2025. Virtual office hours will be held on February 19 and 24. Learn more about CalEPA’s EJ Action Grant Program.
Job Announcement
OPC is Hiring a Tribal Affairs and Community Engagement Specialist – Apply by February 28, 2025
The Tribal Affairs and Community Engagement Specialist will be responsible for facilitating collaborative and coordinated state agency efforts to consult with California Native American tribes and engage with coastal communities on priority topics impacting California’s coast and ocean to ensure OPC programs reflect tribal and community needs. Learn more and apply online.
Dive In
From Ashes to Action: Wildfire Impacts on California’s Coast and Ocean Health
The Southern California wildfires have deeply affected individuals and entire communities, with many experiencing devastating losses – loss of life, loved ones, homes, and livelihoods – leaving a profound and lasting impact. The wildfires will continue to have far-reaching effects on our state… Continue article.
Partner Highlight
California Marine Mammal Stranding Network
Each year, thousands of marine mammals are found ill and injured along the California coast. Thanks to a General Fund appropriation of $2 million across multiple budget years by the California Legislature—totaling $6.5 million in the Budget Act of 2022—marine mammal rescue centers are equipped to safely and humanely respond to these animals. OPC serves as the state’s administrator of these critical funds, ensuring coordination and distribution to support the California Marine Mammal Stranding Network consisting of:
- Northcoast Marine Mammal Center
- California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt
- The Marine Mammal Center
- California Academy of Sciences
- Long Marine Laboratory, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
- Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute
- California Wildlife Center
- Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles
- Ocean Animal Response and Research Alliance
- Pacific Marine Mammal Center
- SeaWorld San Diego
Click on photos to expand.
Autumn, a California sea lion, returns to the ocean after having successfully been treated for an infection and fitted with a satellite tag for long-term monitoring. Photo credit: Chris Deimler, The Marine Mammal Center
Documenting sightings of tagged animals provides a broader understanding of their movements after release. It informs the network of trends in population and effects of climate change, and provides tools to conserve and protect these indicator species. Photo credit: Sue Pemberton, California Academy of Sciences
Gobble was rescued on Thanksgiving Day by the Coronado Police Department and brought in for rehabilitation. After receiving care for dehydration and malnourishment, she regained strength and at six months old, she was returned to the ocean. Photo credit: Alyssa Garcia, SeaWorld
A highly trained team responds to an adult California sea lion, safely getting him under control for transfer into care at Hueneme Beach in Ventura County. Photo credit: Jennifer Levine-Griffiths, Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute.
The state first provided funding to support this work in 2015 in the face of a crisis and unprecedented deaths of California sea lions, and the funding has since been ongoing. For smaller organizations, state funding covers as much as 50% of their annual expenses. With this essential base funding, these organizations can continue life-saving care for marine mammals, ensure public safety, perform critical disease surveillance for marine mammals, and respond to crises yet to come.
Rescue cases like California sea lion ‘Autumn’ demonstrate the powerful impact of this support. Veterinary experts determined she was suffering from leptospirosis, a potentially deadly bacterial infection that can affect animals and people, and provided life-saving medical care. Before Autumn’s release to the ocean, a temporary satellite tag was attached to monitor her in the wild. What scientists learn from treating animals like Autumn helps to improve rescue and rehabilitative care, better elucidate how diseases are transmitted, and protect human health.
Staff Spotlight
Each year, OPC proudly hosts two California Sea Grant State Fellows to support our work advancing ocean and coastal protection in California. We’re excited to welcome Olivia Won and Hallie Brown as our 2025 Fellows! Olivia will be working with OPC’s Climate program, while Hallie will support work within the Biodiversity program—but their efforts will extend across multiple initiatives, supporting our agency’s broader mission. We look forward to their valuable contributions.
Olivia Won, California Sea Grant Fellow
Olivia is an interdisciplinary coastal scientist born and raised in Oakland, California. She completed a master’s from UC Santa Cruz with the Coastal Science and Policy Program in 2023, where she researched pathways for advancing equitable, nature-based coastal adaptation to sea level rise in California.
“As the current Sea Grant Fellow with the Climate Change team, I’m most excited to support OPC’s coastal resilience efforts, including the SB 1 Adaptation Planning Grant Program. Beyond preparing local, regional, and tribal governments for the impacts of sea level rise, this grant program also offers an opportunity for these entities to envision more equitable and just futures for coastal communities and ecosystems alike. I am grateful to join a passionate community of practice in moving this work forward, and I am committed to ensuring that the benefits of adaptation are equitably distributed to all who call California’s coasts home.”
Hallie Brown, California Sea Grant Fellow
Hallie spent most of her life on the central coast of California, and earned her M.S. in Coastal Science and Policy from UC Santa Cruz in September 2024, where she researched ways to advance indigenous-led coastal stewardship in California, with a focus on state policy and restoration.
“I’m most to excited join OPC’s efforts to support tribal and Indigenous-led coastal stewardship and strengthen meaningful engagement and partnerships with California Native American tribes. Tribal Nations and communities have been stewarding the coast and ocean waters now known as California since time immemorial. OPC has taken meaningful steps to better support tribal capacity to steward their ancestral lands and waters, and right historical wrongs committed by the state of California, through actions such as funding land return and capacity building for tribal marine programs and building out a Tribal Engagement Strategy. I am humbled, grateful, and thrilled to continue to move this work forward to ensure tribal priorities, perspectives, and science are reflected in ocean and coastal management in California.”
Photo of the Month
Have a stunning shot of California’s coast or ocean? Submit a photo to be featured as the Photo of the Month! Whether it’s a serene shoreline, vibrant marine life, or a captivating coastal sunset, share the beauty of our state’s coast through your lens! Submit your photo.
This Month’s Photo: Nick Paz / Opalescent nudibranch in a tidepool at Carmet Beach, Bodega Bay
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