| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, March 6th, 2026 | CONTACT: Alex Borgas, [email protected] |
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – CALPIRG Students at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) showed up to Associated Students’ weekly senate meeting to celebrate the passing of a new resolution. After going through its relevant committees, a resolution in support of expanding Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) off of California’s coast came to a vote this last Wednesday. The resolution is part of a larger campaign to get state leaders to expand and strengthen California’s network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
California’s unique network of 124 Marine Protected Areas makes the state a global leader in protecting the critical habitats and life existing in and around our oceans. However, with a warming planet, and historic species extinctions, it is clear that California must strengthen and expand our existing network of protections with highly and fully protected MPAs
That’s why for the past three years CALPIRG Students has been organizing on and off campus support behind proposals that would strengthen this MPA network statewide.
“Having literally gone door to door out in Santa Barbara and talking to folks about this a year ago, this is genuinely the most critical time for this campaign” said Sierra Ferrante, former CALPIRG state board chair and UCSB student.
On May 5th and 6th, the California Fish and Game Commission is hosting a public hearing in Santa Barbara to review petitions that affect California’s MPA network. Some could increase the amount of MPAs, others could reduce the amount of protections we have.
This week at the Associated Students’ weekly senate meeting, members of CALPIRG came to show their support. They sported a variety of signs, each with different words but all the same message: We need to protect our coast. Over the first two months of 2026, CALPIRG Students at UCSB educated 8807 members of the community in face to face interactions and group presentations, and collected 959 petitions in support of the campaign.
“It’s clear that protecting our oceans is something that our students care about deeply,” said Alex Borgas, CALPIRG Protect our Oceans Campaign Coordinator and UCSB student.
Ultimately, the resolution passed unanimously, 14-0. And as per the text of the resolution itself, copies of it will be distributed to multiple California agencies and officials to show that the students at UCSB want to see our oceans protected.
