The Legislature finds and declares that the purpose of this division is to integrate and coordinate the state’s laws and institutions responsible for protecting and conserving ocean resources, including coastal waters and ocean ecosystems, to accomplish all of the following objectives:

(a) Provide a set of guiding principles for all state agencies to follow, consistent with existing law, in protecting the state’s coastal and ocean resources.

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(b) Encourage cooperative management with federal agencies, to protect and conserve representative coastal and ocean habitats and the ecological processes that support those habitats.

(c) Improve coordination and management of state efforts to protect and conserve the ocean by establishing a cabinet level oversight body responsible for identifying more efficient methods of protecting the ocean at less cost to taxpayers.

(d) Use California’s private and charitable resources more effectively in developing ocean protection and conservation strategies.

(e) Provide for public access to the ocean and ocean resources, including to marine protected areas, for recreational use, and aesthetic, educational, and scientific purposes, consistent with the sustainable long-term conservation of those resources.

(f) Identify scientific research and planning that is useful for the protection and conservation of coastal waters and ocean ecosystems, and coordinate and assist state agencies in addressing those needs.

(Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 372, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2008.)