NOAA proposes to expand Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to Golden Gate Bridge

Twenty years after President George H.W. Bush created the largest national marine sanctuary in the continental United States, banning offshore oil drilling along 276 miles of California coast from the Marin Headlands to Hearst Castle, the Obama administration is trying to fill in the missing piece.

The proposal would expand the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary by just 1 percent. But the area isn't just any small patch of ocean water. It's the busiest, most high-profile section of Northern California's coast, a highway for oil tankers and fishing boats, a recreational haven and a backdrop for millions of photographs -- the waters directly west of the Golden Gate Bridge.