RBOC has been advocating throughout 2025 on a number of important policy issues impacting all aspects of recreational boating in California: boat registration fees, golden mussel infestations, marine flares, E15 fuel, copper-based anti-fouling paints, water conveyance, unreasonable increases in boat slip rates, and abandoned vessels:
Registration Fees – RBOC is advocating for updates and efficiencies to state programs financed by boat registration fees to ensure they provide positive benefits to boaters and share costs with other stakeholders where appropriate – prior to an increase in boat registration fees.
The Legislature did not increase boat registration fees this year. The efforts will continue, as there is a $20 million annual deficit in the Harbors and Watercraft Revolving Fund.
This fund provides essential boating programs and services including aquatic center grants, boater education certification, boating safety and enforcement aid to counties abandoned vessel program, invasive species prevention and eradication, vessel pumpout facilities, yacht and ship broker licensure, and more.
Golden Mussels – RBOC is engaged with the state legislature, state and regional agencies and boating industry groups as they take action to prevent the further infestation of water bodies by the golden mussel, often imposing restrictions and prohibitions on all on-the-water activities.
Governor Newsom signed into law the golden mussel budget trailer bill AB 149 increasing the cost of the DMV-issued quagga \ zebra sticker from $20 to at least $30 to help fund the golden mussel efforts.
We share the objectives of AB 149 to enhance the current efforts to prevent the infestation and spread of nonnative, invasive golden mussels into additional waterways and water delivery infrastructure.
Our advocacy efforts continue on the issues we have identified with this legislation as enacted:
· Piecemeal - The legislation is a piecemeal approach on an important issue that deserves a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary dedication of resources.
· Boater Fee Focus - While the measures identify and dedicate tens of millions of additional state funds for these efforts, they impose additional fees on only one stakeholder: the owners of recreational vessels.
o New fees place yet another obstacle in front of boaters who are already deterred by constantly-changing prohibitions and restrictions being imposed on a case-by-case basis for individual bodies of water. There are locations where boaters are paying $120 or more to decontaminate their boats, avoid 30-day quarantines, and launch them at a lake.
· Decontamination - Attention must be given to approaches to minimize the disruptions to on-the-water recreation without compromising the prevention and eradication efforts. These should include enhanced decontamination facilities, as well as an extension of inspections to the variety of non-motorized craft that are placed into the water at locations other than launch ramps and present a risk of spreading infestation, such as kayaks, canoes, rafts and other vessels.
· Commercial Ships - The measure fails to identify and address the most prevalent source of the introduction of invasive species in our waterways, which is commercial ship ballast water. A high priority must be placed on new measures to effectively prevent future occurrences and place responsibility and accountability on these sources of infestation.
These issues are essential to an effective, balanced effort to prevent, control and eradicate golden mussels, and we will continue to be engaged to accomplish this shared objective.
Marine Flares – RBOC is advocating for significant revisions to SB 561 [Blakespear] that proposes a comprehensive extended producer responsibility program [EPR] program for pyrotechnic marine flares.
It is essential that the structure and requirements of the legislation acknowledge that there is only one manufacturer and so that the take-back requirements are tailored to ensure that the costs of implementation do not place an unreasonable burden on boaters.
The author has temporarily halted the advancement of the measure until 2026 to enable the proponents, state regulators and RBOC to develop provisions that would address this concern.
E15 Fuel – RBOC opposed AB 30 [Alvarez] that authorizes the offering of E15 fuel in California. The concerns are that the state’s authorization of E15 fuel will raise prices on E10 gasoline, restrict the availability of that fuel, and inevitably ruin many boat engines.
As AB 30 progressed through the Legislature its was significantly amended to condition this authorization on completion of the multimedia evaluation and the state air board adoption of a regulation for E15 or finds that it is not possible to use E15 in California without an adverse impact.
With the Governor’s signature of AB 30 into law, California has become the 32nd state to authorize E15. RBOC will continue to push for the availability of affordable E10 for the boating community.
Copper-based Antifouling Paints – RBOC advocated in support of AB 773 [Dixon] to review the effectiveness of low-leach-rate paint and elevated copper concentrations in saltwater harbors, bays, and marinas that are primarily a result of the use of copper-based antifouling paint, and to determine the best methods to address elevated copper concentrations in saltwater harbors, bays, and marinas that are primarily a result of the use of this paint in the state.
RBOC has also supported local boaters and the City of Newport Beach in the State Water Resources Control Board hearing with testimony re-emphasizing several key concerns with the Santa Ana Water Board amendment to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Santa Ana River Basin to incorporate Total Maximum Daily Loads for Copper in Newport Bay.
This bill was held in committee this year and the author is considering introduction of a new measure in 2026.
Water Conveyance - RBOC continues to advocate in opposition to the Delta Conveyance Project that, as revised to one tunnel, would still significantly impede navigation and harm Delta recreation.
RBOC joined Delta legislators and lobbied in opposition to draft budget trailer legislation that would have streamlined permitting, limited legal challenges and revised water rights processes.
Fortunately, the draft was not introduced prior to the end of session on September 12.
Efforts will continue – the Governor remains committed to this project.
Boat Slip Rates - RBOC and our parent organizations, the Southern California Yachting Association [SCYA] and the Pacific Inter-Club Yacht Association [PICYA], are requesting that the State Lands Commission take the appropriate and necessary actions to ensure that the recreational boating public is not subjected to unreasonable slip rates.
Recreational boaters, especially those located throughout Southern California, are concerned that slip rates are being very significantly increased at marina facilities on granted tidelands with oversight by the Commission.
The Commission secures and safeguards the public’s access rights to navigable waterways and the coastline and protects the public’s right to these valuable lands and resources. Boaters impacted by the rate increases are of the opinion that the Commission should protect and promote affordable boating when it is challenged by unreasonable slip rates that are contrary to these objectives.
RBOC shares the interest of local boaters in specifcally-impacted communities and throughout the state that fair pricing of recreational boating services by operators and lessees of marinas and recreational harbors on tidelands properties, particularly those owned by the State of California and ceded to local government authorities for the purpose of construction and operation of small boat marinas, is important to ensure the availability of recreational boating opportunities to the widest possible cross-section of the public.
There are tens of thousands of recreational boaters, most of moderate income, who depend on publicly owned harbors and marinas to provide facilities for their activities, and, for professional fisherman, for their livelihood. As per the Tidelands doctrine, under which most marinas operate, these facilities should be provided at a fair and reasonable price so all segments of the public can enjoy these publicly owned assets. In most cases, the marinas appear to have a local monopoly over slip space.
RBOC joins local boaters and requests that the State Lands Commission investigate these slip rate increases and take the appropriate actions to protect boaters who feel they are being treated in a manner inconsistent with the applicable laws that protect their rights to use public facilities on our coast and waterways.
Abandoned Vessels - AB 274 [Ransom] - proposed a requirement that the State Lands Commission inventory all abandoned and derelict commercial and recreational vessels on or in waters within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
RBOC advocated for the continued separation of efforts to address abandoned commercial vessels by the State Lands Commission and addressing abandoned recreational vessels by the Division of Boating and Waterways.
One abandoned commercial vessel could cost $3 million or more and wipe out the recreational vessel fund.
The bill was held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and will not move forward.
A recent update: the BoatUS Foundation has launched the first national database to track abandoned boats and derelict vessels across the US. This have been created in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program.
This national database will allow visitors to report abandoned and derelict vessels on their coastlines, allowing the issue to be better understood on a national scale with the support of the public.
Eventually, this database will be able to track the impacts of removal and prevention efforts by showing how the number of ADVs across the country may one day decrease.
