El Segundo, CA - A bill co-authored by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) and Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) to expand two northern California Marine sanctuaries to permanently protect the Sonoma and southern Mendocino coasts recently won an endorsement by the California State Lands Commission, the state agency charged with the protection of California’s tidelands.

“I’m thrilled that the State Lands Commission strongly agrees with me that these Sonoma and Mendocino County coastal areas, as beautiful and bountiful as they are, deserve permanent protection,” said Rep. Woolsey.

Meeting in El Segundo, the California State Lands Commission voted 3-0 to support H.R. 1187, a bill that would add 1740 square nautical miles to the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries.  The State Lands Commission was established by the legislature to protect “public trust” lands of the state. Among its responsibilities are to administer oil leases in state waters and ensure environmental protection of state waterways.

"The mission of the State Lands Commission is to manage state waters for water related uses and to protect the natural resources upon which those uses often depend,” said Paul Thayer of the Commission.  “The Commission adopted its resolution in support of HR 1187 because expansion of the two National Marine Sanctuaries will help protect the ocean upwelling area that supports the incredible diversity and abundance of sea life off northern California."

John Chaing, California’s State Controller, and a member of the Lands Commission, sponsored the resolution that endorses H.R. 1187 and conveys commission support to key federal and state officials, including the Chair and Ranking member of the House Resources Committee, where the bill has been referred.

The resolution noted that “inclusion of these currently unprotected but biologically significant ocean areas in the sanctuaries would enable them to be managed… to protect them from environmentally detrimental activities including oil and gas exploration and production.”

The State Lands Commission action put them in the company of the State Coastal Commission, the counties of Marin, Sonoma, and San Francisco, several cities, the Port of Oakland, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations, the Ocean Conservancy, the Sierra Club and many other organizations who have endorsed the bill.