San Diego Coastkeeper


Overview

Areas of Special Biological Significance (ASBS)

While clean ocean water is a necessary component of healthy oceans, local water quality is under attack from a variety of pollution sources, including discharge of wastewater or pollutants, litter, and stormwater runoff.

To protect our oceans and maintain high water quality within some of the most pristine and biologically diverse sections of California’s coast, the California State Water Resources Control Board created Areas of Special Biological Significance (ASBS). Today, there are 34 such areas – sometimes referred to as State Water Quality Protection Areas – in California. La Jolla is home to two.

These ASBS encompass a large portion of the La Jolla Shores marine environment, which includes the La Jolla State Marine Conservation Area and the adjoining San Diego-Scripps State Marine Conservation Area.

To protect and improve water quality in these two ASBS, San Diego Coastkeeper is working with Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the City of San Diego in a unique hands-on partnership to implement the La Jolla Shores Coastal Watershed Management Plan, which is intended to be the blueprint for actions that will be taken locally.