Only a couple of weeks ago, there were fears the legislation was dead. But thousands of Californians and dozens of environmental organizations banded together to put enough pressure on reluctant politicians in Sacramento to cross the finish line.

This was truly a grassroots campaign. I'm reminded of a favorite mantra from the 2008 Obama campaign, "One Voice."

For me, that voice belongs to Shark Savers' Sue Chen, an amazing activist from Manhattan Beach, who's been working countless hours to spearhead this campaign in Southern California. It was an editorial she and Mark Gold wrote for the Daily Breeze which detailed Ted Lieu's opposition to the shark fin ban, that spurred my involvement:

Both of these ideas may sound positive on first blush, but they do not have any realistic chance of being passed in Sacramento. And you can imagine how popular these amendments would be with the state fishing industry. More important, shark finning globally, not any activity by our local fisheries, is the major cause of the decimation of shark populations. A state bill that specifically targets the sales of shark fins will have the greatest impact on helping critical shark populations recover."

After reading that, I knew I had to act. Being that Ted Lieu is my State Senator, I thought he might be interested in knowing that many of his constituents opposed his position. So I started a petition at Change.org and sent a message out to the Venice For Change 5,000+ district-wide email list asking for signatures.

What I didn't know then was that Lieu's amendments were on the verge of killing the bill in committee. Some of the Senators, who weren't knowledgeable about the intricacies of the shark fin trade, wavered. Their previously favorable votes disappeared.

But in just a few days, over 900 people signed the petition. Every signature triggered an email which went directly to Senator Lieu's office. Lieu suddenly began engaging on Twitter and with constituents via email. In the end, he refused to vote for the bill. But he did agree not to push his amendments.

Five Senators voted to approve the bill in committee. The exact number it needed to pass to get it on the floor for a final vote.

Even as we wait for Governor Brown to sign this bill into law, activists are already talking about their next actions - in Toronto, Vancouver, and even Hong Kong. Our shared goal is a world-wide ban on the sale and possessions of shark fins, and an end to a brutal and wasteful slaughter.

Thanks to you, Sue Chen, and countless others who never stopped believing, that reality is one step closer. The day the bill passed, Sue Chen sent out the following message to the amazing activists she connected with in this fight.

Thank you for listening to all of my shark talk these last few months and helping me believe that this could get done!

Special love and hugs goes to my 4 year old nephew Bryson, who personally evangelized to over 100 strangers, raised $1,000 and came up with a master plan to take away the shark hooks from the fisherman, hide them in his corn garden and punish the shark finners with a time-out of 100 minutes.

That's passion and why we do what we do."