Let’s get Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary done

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We won a  great victory for ocean protection on Aug. 8 when the California Coastal Commission gave the green light to a series of boundary options for the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, just south of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

If the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Biden-Harris administration and Congress approve it this fall, Chumash would be the sixth marine sanctuary off the West Coast and the first tribally nominated sanctuary in the nation. It would join Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries in California and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Washington state to help form a continuous line of protection.

Adding it would mean protecting waters off San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, stopping the threat of offshore oil expansion, seismic testing and seabed mining and potentially generating up to $23 million in economic activity. 

The cool, nutrient-rich waters of this area flow southward from the edge of British Columbia to Baja Mexico and are known as the California Coastal Current. These waters nourish ocean plants – from microscopic phytoplankton to dense kelp forest – which are the basis of the complex food web that feeds fisheries as well as the sea lions, seals, whales, dolphins and sea birds we so love to see in our ocean. 

The Northern Chumash Tribal Council nominated Chumash in 2013, so it’s been a long time coming. Its management would include collaborative stewardship with First Peoples and is a management model we all should celebrate. 

It recognizes Indigenous people’s values, knowledge and traditions and involves current tribal leaders in the management. The sanctuary would protect against the loss of Chumash cultural sites, including ancient village sites that might exist along the now-submerged paleoshoreline, and carry on the Chumash legacy. 

We are close to realizing this dream. Now is the time to get it done.

When NOAA, which runs the national marine sanctuary program, released its blueprint for the tribally nominated sanctuary in 2021, the public contributed nearly 100,000 online comments, nearly all in support of the largest boundary. That boundary consists of 156 miles of coastline and 7,600 square miles, including the underwater Rodriguez Seamount and deep Arguello Canyon. It’s thrilling to see that sort of public understanding of the important role marine sanctuaries play in preservation.

NOAA, I should note, is also investigating smaller boundary options, most notably to accommodate undersea transmission cables and infrastructure from a 376-mile offshore wind lease area west of Cambria, and outside Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Those leases have already been sold to a consortium of wind energy companies, who will want to get the electricity produced onto shore and into California’s utility grid, meeting clean energy goals, much to the chagrin of many residents in the area.

But, we are hopeful the agency will choose to support the larger boundary.

National marine sanctuaries were established in 1972 – in the wake of the catastrophic 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill – to promote education, resource protection and research within culturally and scientifically significant areas within the U.S. Ocean and Great Lakes. 

The teams that work inside each sanctuary are vital to preserving habitats, species and the health of our ocean, which makes up two-thirds of our planet. We get half the oxygen we breathe from the ocean and it absorbs excess atmospheric carbon. So we need to be mindful about protecting it and grateful to those who do this hard work.

The effort to establish Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary stretches back four decades – and its history is intertwined with that of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which was designated in 1992.

In 1977, NOAA’s national marine sanctuary program looked at areas that were good candidates for protection. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed Morro Bay in San Luis Obispo County and surrounding waters, and in 1983 it was accepted as a potential site.

The county later asked NOAA to include the county’s offshore waters and northern Santa Barbara. In 1990, then-Rep. Leon Panetta introduced a bill to create a Central Coast national marine sanctuary. Though the bill did not move forward, activists kept working for marine sanctuary designation.

In April 2011, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission directed Pacific Gas & Electric to map offshore areas near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant for earthquake faults, and the proposed seismic testing project sparked a grassroots movement in opposition that included Santa Lucia Sierra Club, San Luis Obispo Surfrider, Northern Chumash Tribal Council and others.

This catalyzed the effort to create a marine sanctuary; in 2013, the Northern Chumash Tribal Council nominated a 7,600-square-mile area from Cambria to Point Conception for marine sanctuary status, and in 2015, NOAA accepted the proposal. 

Those of us who live in Santa Cruz County can easily understand the value of protection. 

We have only to look at the example of the Monterey Bay sanctuary, which hosts 36 species of marine mammals, more than 180 species of seabirds and shorebirds and at least 525 fish species. It has an advisory council with representatives from the community, government and specific interests – including commercial and recreational fishing. Its staff and volunteers undertake education and outreach, research and resource protection.

Continuous sanctuary protection along the coast will enable teams from each marine sanctuary to work with each other and their partners to, for example, restore healthy kelp forests, which not only store excess carbon, but also dampen erosion of shorelines and provide habitat for species such as rockfish, sea otters and crabs.

Fighting to add Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary to our nation’s network of national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments will help support our productive California ocean waters, and our planet.

We are now in the home stretch. NOAA expects to publish a final management plan and environmental impact statement this September.

I am hopeful the vote will be positive and we will see a continuous line of protection for our ocean.

Dan Haifley was the first director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey and Save Our Shores, and currently is secretary of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation board. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at dan.haifley@gmail.com. Sign up for the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary campaign email list here.