American Coastal & Marine Ecosystem Restoration Act
Bringing back kelp forests. Restoring salmon runs. Protecting fishing communities. Honoring Tribal wisdom.
🌊 What Does This Bill Do?
Our oceans are in trouble. Kelp forests have disappeared. Salmon are vanishing. Fishing families are struggling. This bill fights back—it restores underwater forests, brings water back to salmon rivers, protects working harbors, and partners with Tribes who have protected these waters for thousands of years.
🚨 Our Oceans Need Help
GONE since 2014
DISAPPEARED
DIVERTED away
at RISK
🏛️ Four Big Solutions
Restore Kelp Forests
Remove purple urchins that ate our kelp. Plant new kelp. Create an "Urchin Removal Corps" to pay divers.
Bring Back Salmon
Return water to the Trinity River. Remove barriers. Restore habitat where salmon spawn.
Protect Waterfronts
Save fishing harbors from being turned into condos. Build "living shorelines" that work with nature.
Honor Tribal Partners
Co-management with Tribes. Respect treaty rights. Learn from traditional knowledge.
🌿 West Coast Kelp Recovery: $25 Million/Year
Kelp forests are like underwater rainforests. They absorb 20x more carbon than land forests! But 95% of Northern California's kelp is GONE. This bill brings it back.
🔬 Why Kelp Died
Warm ocean water + starfish disease = explosion of purple urchins. The urchins ate ALL the kelp, leaving "urchin barrens."
💚 Kelp Superpowers
Each acre provides $363,000 in benefits: fish habitat, carbon capture, wave protection, and clean water.
🌱 Heat-Resistant Kelp
Scientists will find kelp that survives warm water. Grow it in nurseries. Plant it where urchins are cleared.
🦔 The Urchin Removal Corps
Pay commercial divers to harvest millions of purple urchins—and turn them into something useful!
$3+/Pound
Bounty for urchins
Priority Jobs
For displaced fishers
Fertilizer
Turn urchins into plant food
Uni Ranching
Fatten & sell as delicacy
🐟 Salmon Habitat Restoration: $200 Million/Year
Salmon are disappearing. They need cold, clean rivers to spawn. This bill removes barriers and brings water back.
Priorities: Culvert replacement • Small dam removal • Fish ladders • Floodplain reconnection
💧 Trinity River Water Repatriation
The Trinity River was California's greatest salmon river. Then 90% of its water was piped away to farms in the Central Valley. This bill brings water HOME.
New Water Priority Order
Phase-In Schedule
🪶 Honoring Tribal Partners
True Co-Management
Tribal representatives have EQUAL decision-making power with federal agencies
Treaty Rights Protected
Yurok, Hoopa Valley, and other Tribes' fishing rights fully honored
Traditional Knowledge
Learn from thousands of years of Indigenous wisdom about salmon and rivers
Direct Funding
$100 million/year for Tribal programs. Tribes apply directly—not through states.
⚓ Protecting Working Waterfronts
Port Hardening
$150M/year to upgrade harbors for rising seas
Living Shorelines
50%+ must use nature-based protection
Anti-Displacement
30-year protection from condo conversion
Tax Credits
15% wage credit, 30% capital credit for fishing businesses
Workforce Training
$25M/year for marine jobs training
Fishing Priority
Commercial fishing gets first consideration
💰 How It's Funded: $2.5 Billion/Year Cap
Paid for by offshore wind royalties (12.5%) and carbon fees (if passed). Here's where the money goes:
Partnership (40%)
Restoration (8%)
Infrastructure (6%)
Programs (4%)
Recovery (1%)
Workforce (1%)
10-year sunset • GAO reviews at Year 5 and Year 9 • Bipartisan commission sets success metrics
🗺️ Starting in CA-2: A National Model
California's 2nd Congressional District is ground zero for ocean crisis—and the perfect place to prove these solutions work.
Priority Communities
🌊 Healthy Oceans. Thriving Salmon. Strong Communities.
Our coast is calling for help. Kelp forests need to come back. Salmon need their rivers. Fishing families need their harbors. And Tribal partners need their voices heard. This bill answers that call—with science, with funding, and with respect for the people who know these waters best.
Gregory Burgess for Congress
No Party Preference • California's 2nd Congressional District
"Show Your Work" Campaign