The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Substantial declines in various species of desirable fish that are caught in southern California ocean waters have adversely affected recreational and commercial fishing and their related industries.

(b) Research and development of artificial propagation, rearing, and stocking techniques and equipment have been sufficiently developed. The purpose of this article is to determine if hatchery-released fish can artificially enhance certain stocks of various desirable species, through increased hatchery production of fish and increased monitoring of fisheries to assess the contribution of hatchery-released fish to that enhancement.

(c) Funding for research pertaining to enhancement and artificial propagation, rearing, and stocking are most appropriately borne by a special fund derived from user fees on recreational and commercial fishermen who stand to directly benefit from the resurgence of depressed marine fisheries.

(d) The department has continuing resource management, administrative, and policy review responsibility in marine resources issues.

(e) Volunteers from the recreational fishing community have developed and operated grow-out facilities with private funding. These volunteer activities greatly enhance the effectiveness of the program and are fully compatible with the overall program objectives.

(f) As white sea bass hatchery production is established, additional grow-out facilities will be required and coordination between these facilities will be necessary. The ocean resources enhancement advisory panel may encourage contracts to carry out coordination activities and recommend to the director that this coordination remain a high priority. Those coordination activities may be funded with fees collected by the department pursuant to this article.

(g) The use of federal matching funds, including sportfish restoration account funds, shall be a high priority for use to match state dollars for this program.

(Amended by Stats. 1994, Ch. 369, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1995.)