This webpage was updated on October 2, 2025

Updates from the September 30, 2025 Council Meeting


The September 30, 2025, Ocean Protection Council (OPC) meeting advanced key climate resilience, equity, and biodiversity priorities statewide. The Council unanimously approved more than $25 million in investments to directly support communities in preparing for sea level rise, provide small grants to environmental justice and tribal communities, address the impacts of ocean acidification, hypoxia, and harmful algal blooms, and support reintroduction of the Sunflower Sea Star, a keystone species for healthy kelp forest ecosystems.   
 
This suite of investments reflects OPC’s ongoing commitment to ecosystem health, equitable access to ocean benefits, and collaborative stewardship of California’s coast and ocean. 

Key Action Items 

  • SB 1 Sea Level Rise Adaptation Planning Grant Program:  Up to $9,326,379 in funding was approved across seven projects for shoreline adaptation planning in the San Francisco Bay:  
    • City of Alameda: Up to $1,140,000 for the “Oakland-Alameda Shoreline Adaptation Planning”  
    • Association of Bay Area Governments/San Francisco Estuary Partnership: Up to $2,240,000 for “The East Bay Crescent Sub-Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Shoreline Adaptation Planning”  
    • City of Oakland: Up to $144,900 for the “City of Oakland Oakland-Alameda Adaptation Committee and East Bay Crescent Regional Planning Effort”  
    • County of Santa Clara: Up to $2,631,383 for the “Santa Clara County Subregional Shoreline Adaptation Plan”  
    • San Mateo County Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency District: Up to $2,033,726 for the “San Mateo County Southern Bayside Cities Shoreline Resilience Plan”  
    • City of Pinole: Up to $736,370 for the “Pinole-Hercules Multi-Jurisdictional Shoreline Adaptation Plan”  
    • City of Pittsburg: Up to $400,000 for the “City of Pittsburg Shoreline Adaptation Plan” 
  • Tribal and Environmental Justice Small Grants: Up to $2,000,000 in funding was approved to the California Coastal Commission for tribal and environmental justice small grants through the 2025-26 WHALE TAIL® Competitive Grants Program. 
  • Sunflower Sea Star Reintroduction: Up to $630,014 was approved to The Nature Conservancy, the California Academy of Sciences, and California Department of Fish and Wildlife to invest in captive breeding, identification of wild populations, and state pathogen laboratory capacity to help restore this keystone species and improve kelp forest resilience. 

Informational Items 

  • Evaluation Criteria for 30×30 Conservation Areas: Staff presented how OPC will evaluate candidate areas —including Tribal Stewardship Areas, lightly protected MPAs outside the state network, and non-MPA designations — against California’s definition of a 30×30 Conservation Area. Results of the evaluation will be reported in 2026 and used to guide future protections. 

Chair Updates and Executive Director Report 

Chair Crowfoot highlighted the passage of Proposition 4, otherwise known as the Climate Bond, which provides a total of $210 million for OPC, with $54.5 million of this total allocated in the FY 25/26 budget. This funding will support projects to conserve, protect, and restore healthy ocean and coastal ecosystems, and advance sea level rise adaptation.   

Executive Director Jenn Eckerle gave additional detail on the Climate Bond and provided an overview of the FY 25/26 budget, noting how these resources will advance ocean and coastal resilience, rocky reef and kelp forest recovery, and support sea level rise adaptation projects. She also announced the release of OPC’s survey to assess impacts of federal funding changes on California’s coastal and ocean programs. Jenn highlighted the establishment of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, in which OPC will serve as a representative for the State of California, and shared that the State of California  will receive international recognition at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi for California’s marine protected area network, as a global model for marine conservation and the first nature network in the world to be included on the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas.  

She thanked OPC’s 2025 summer interns, Kiani Baetsle, Paige Thionnet (pictured left), Jacob Wagner (pictured right), Kate Robinson, and Anne Larson, for their contributions. Then welcomed two new fellows: Fiona Vogler, who joins OPC through the Executive Fellowship Program supporting both executive-level functions of OPC and the Natural Resources Agency’s Legislative Affairs team, and Emily Majluf, who joins OPC through the California Climate Action Corps Fellowship to support CNRA and OPC in advancing California’s goal to conserve 30% of state lands and waters by 2030.  More information is available in the Executive Director’s Report.  

More information is available in the Executive Director’s Report. 

View the full September agenda and associated documents on the meeting webpage. The recording is also available:     

Next Meeting 

The next OPC Quarterly Public Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 9, 2025, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the CNRA Auditorium (715 P Street, Sacramento) with Zoom participation available. 

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Categories: 30x30, Aquaculture, Climate Change, Coastal Habitats, Equity and Environmental Justice, Funding Opportunities and Updates, Habitats, Harmful Algal Blooms, Kelp, Leadership and Staff Updates, Marine Habitats, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia, OPC Meetings, Report Release, Sea Level Rise, Strategic Goal 1: Climate Change, Strategic Goal 2: Equity, Strategic Goal 3: Biodiversity, Strategic Goal 4: Sustainable Blue Economy, Sustainable Fisheries and Marine Ecosystems, Tribal Engagement, Water Quality