Biden-Harris Administration announced that NOAA is designating 4,543 square miles of coastal and offshore waters along 116 miles of California’s central coast as America’s 17th national marine sanctuary. Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary will conserve the area’s diverse range of marine life and celebrate Indigenous peoples’ connections to the region. It is the third largest sanctuary in the National Marine Sanctuary System.
The new marine sanctuary is at the confluence of warm southern currents and cold northern currents, which together provide habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, including migrating whales, sea turtles and sea otters. The region boasts a variety of diverse ecosystems including kelp forests, sandy beaches, underwater mountains and rocky reefs.
Credit: Robert Schwemmer_NOAA
Indigenous community involvement
Indigenous Peoples have lived on California’s central coast for over 10,000 years. Submerged cultural resources, including possible ancient village locations once present along paleo shorelines, will now receive long-term protection through sanctuary regulations. The sanctuary honors the deep cultural and historical importance of this place to the region’s Indigenous Peoples. Respect will guide community-focused efforts to protect the marine environment and ensure long-term care of this treasured ocean place.
“Being able to address climate change, use traditional ecological knowledge, and participate in co-management is Indigenous peoples’ contribution to saving the planet,” Violet Sage Walker told NPR. Walker is chairwoman of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, which led the campaign for the sanctuary more than a decade ago. Walker’s father spearheaded the effort; she said it was his dying wish to see the area protected.
Offshore wind and oil & gas drilling
“This designation will forever protect this part of the ocean from oil and gas drilling and create the staging ground for valuable science to study our ocean in a changing climate,” Laura Deehan, Environment California state director, said in a statement.
The final sanctuary boundaries are smaller than originally proposed due to California’s burgeoning offshore wind industry. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says it plans to look at expanding the sanctuary in the future.
National marine sanctuaries are similar to a national forest on land. The new sanctuary will be protected from oil and gas drilling, as well as undersea mining, while fishing is still permitted. It also means more public outreach and monitoring for environmental impacts, something NOAA says is vital to understanding how the ecosystem is being affected by climate change.
Stretching from just south of Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County to the Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County, the sanctuary will bring comprehensive community- and ecosystem-based management to nationally significant natural, historical, archeological and cultural resources — including kelp forests, rocky reefs, sandy beaches, underwater mountains and more than 200 NOAA-documented shipwrecks.
