(a) The purpose of the endowment is to create a permanent source of funding for projects and programs that will conserve, protect, restore, and enhance the coastal and marine resources of the state, with an emphasis on open coastal marine resources, and that will improve the sustainability of marine activities and encourage and support environmentally sustainable marine activities. To achieve this objective, the endowment board may award grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations to support any or all of the following activities:
(1) Applied research, including, but not limited to, monitoring and data collection in support of projects to conserve, protect, restore, and enhance the open coastal marine resources of the state. In so doing, the board shall take maximum advantage of the scientific research expertise available from the University of California, the California State University, other institutions of higher learning, and marine science research institutions with expertise in marine resource issues. No more than 10 percent of funds awarded by the endowment in any fiscal year shall be awarded for research.
(2) Projects in open coastal waters that enhance environmentally sustainable marine activities.
(3) Projects in open coastal waters to enhance the habitat for open coastal marine life, including, but not limited to, the identification, monitoring, and protection of important ecological areas.
(4) Enforcement programs that protect, conserve, and enhance natural resources and marine habitat in and adjacent to open coastal waters, including regulating the take of open coastal marine species and monitoring of open coastal marine species and habitat with an emphasis on innovative approaches.
(5) Programs to aid in the establishment of sustainable fishing levels, including, but not limited to, ecosystem-based management of forage species, and programs to reduce or prevent habitat damage in open coastal waters.
(6) Programs to monitor catch and bycatch and to reduce bycatch in fisheries managed by the State of California and by the United States.
(7) Programs, projects, and activities that are directly related to the conservation, protection, restoration, and enhancement of coastal and marine resources of the state, with an emphasis on open coastal marine resources, and that are authorized by either paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 35650 or by Section 75060.
(b) Funds provided by the endowment are not intended, and shall not be used, to supplant funding provided through the annual budget process to support existing obligations and activities related to coastal and marine resources.
(c) The endowment board may also do all of the following:
(1) Obtain grants from, and contract with, individuals and with private, local, state, and federal agencies, organizations, and institutions.
(2) Contract with, or make grants to, conservation and educational organizations; marine institutes; aquariums and museums; institutions of higher education; and local, state, and federal agencies to carry out the purposes of this chapter.
(3) Loan funds to local, state, and federal agencies, organizations, and institutions to carry out the purposes of this chapter.
(d) The endowment shall create a business plan for a five-year period. The endowment shall update the plan annually.
(e) On or before February 1 each year following incorporation, the endowment shall submit a report for the preceding fiscal year to the Governor and to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature. The report shall include all of the following:
(1) The updated business plan created pursuant to subdivision (c).
(2) A comprehensive and detailed report of the endowment’s operations, activities, financial condition, and accomplishments under this section.
(3) A listing of each recipient of a grant from the endowment and the purposes and amount of that grant.
(4) A listing of any loan that the endowment has received and the plan for repaying the loan.
(5) A report of each independent audit required pursuant to subdivision (e) of Section 71560.
(Added by Stats. 2010, Ch. 687, Sec. 2. (AB 2503) Effective January 1, 2011.)