In 2011, Humboldt Baykeeper and the California Coastkeeper Alliance worked hard to garner support for Assembly Bill 376, a bill making it unlawful for any person to possess, sell, trade, or distribute shark fins. The California state legislature passed this much-needed bill in the fall after vigorous debate, adding California to the list of Pacific states including Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, to ban the sale of shark fins.
The California Coastkeeper Alliance also worked to support Assembly Bill 1112, a bill ensuring that California can maintain its existing ability to prevent and clean up costly oil spills through the Oil Spill Response and Prevention Fund. Currently, the Fund comes from a 5-cent fee paid by oil companies on each barrel of crude oil delivered into California - a fee that has not increased since 2002, when the rate increased one penny. The California state legislature passed this bill, increasing fees to six and three-quarters cents per barrel. These fees will bring in much needed resources to the Fund to protect California’s coastal ecosystem.
Looking ahead, Humboldt Baykeeper is working locally to enact a countywide ban on single-use plastic bags. The state legislature failed to pass a statewide ban in 2010 due to heavy lobbying by the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group representing the plastic bag industry. We are working with the Surfrider Humboldt Chapter to garner support for banning single-use plastic bags within the county, and will be looking to the Humboldt Waste Management Authority to move the ordinance forward in 2012.
