In The News

Senator Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey paid FMSA a visit at a recent press conference held right here on the dock just outside our offices! They appeared alongside many marine scientists and conservationists to promote the Boundary Modification Act, a proposed piece of legislation that would expand the boundaries of both the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries.

"Our state is very clear: We don't want any more drilling," Boxer, a Greenbrae Democrat, said at the news conference. "The Sonoma Coast is one of the world's most biologically diverse marine environments."

The legislation—authored by Woolsey, with a parallel measure that Boxer introduced in the Senate—would increase the jurisdiction of the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries to include all of the Sonoma Coast, thus extending the sanctuaries' permanent ban on oil and gas drilling to those areas.

A panel of experts included our own Zeke Grader, a FMSA board member and executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, that, along with FMSA, has officially endorsed the measure, Richard Charter, Marine Conservation Advocate for the National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition, Sonoma County Supervisor, Mike Reilley and Dr. Susan Williams with the UC Davis-affiliated Bodega Marine Laboratory were also in attendance.

All in all, a successful start for the launch of this critical legislation!

Read the article online at SFGate.com (July 6, 2005):
Lawmakers push larger ocean sanctuaries
Bills would expand permanent ban on oil and gas drilling to waters off Sonoma Coast

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