Update: California Ocean Day 2025

On May 6, 2025, Environment California teamed up with Surfrider Foundation, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Azul, NRDC and dozens of other ocean groups and community leaders from across the state to engage directly with lawmakers and urge stronger protections for our coast and ocean.

Defending the Coast. Protecting the Ocean. 

Together, we participated in 88 advocacy meetings with the state legislature and with executive officers. Since nearly half of the California legislature was elected in the last two years, one main priority was raising awareness about the top threats facing our coast and ocean, and the importance of core protections from the Coastal Act to the Marine Life Protection Act and the Plastic Pollution Reduction law. We also shared our ocean day program agenda, to protect the coast from sewage runoff in the Tijuana rivershed, stop new offshore oil drilling, and phase out dangerous fishing nets that can harm sea lions and dolphins. Our ocean advocates, including students from CALPIRG chapters around the state, spoke passionately about the urgent need to act now to protect marine life, drawing from their own experiences and why they love the ocean. 

Ocean Panel Educational Events

California Ocean Day 2025 featured several educational panel events with exciting guest speakers on topics including clean offshore wind energy, defending coastal access in and moving towards whale-safe fisheries in California. We also held a screening of the powerful documentary, Sequoias of the Sea, documenting the devastating loss of more than 95% of the North Coast kelp forest habitat. 

Film screening – Sequoias of the SeaPhoto by Staff | Used by permission

Monterey Bay Aquarium Ocean Champion Award

Founder and Executive Director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Julie Packard presented this year’s ocean champion awards to Asm. Rebecca Bauer Kahan, Sen. Catherine Blakespeare, Zoe Heller, Director of CalRecycle for their work to tackle plastic pollution, including finally banning single use plastic bags in California!

We also awarded the first ever Ocean Day Lifetime Achievement Award to Founder and Executive Director of the aquarium, Julie Packard. 

California Ocean Day 2025 brought the ocean to Sacramento. Together, we sent a strong, unified message to California state leaders: our ocean matters to all Californians, and we’re counting on you to defend it.