Consistent with the council’s authority and responsibility under this chapter to coordinate activities of state agencies with ocean or coastal management interests or regulatory authority, to improve the effectiveness of state efforts to protect ocean resources, and to establish policies to coordinate the collection and sharing of scientific data related to coastal and ocean resources among agencies, the council may award grants, enter into interagency agreements, and provide assistance to public agencies and nonprofit organizations to support this effort, including grants to improve geospatial data collection, interagency data sharing and collaboration, and tools for visualizing and analyzing these data. In allocating grants and assistance, the council shall give preference to public

agencies that are meeting the goals described in Section 35620.