A New Marine Sanctuary Off California Will Be Co-Managed by Indigenous Peoples

Along 116 miles of central California’s stunning shoreline, a new national marine sanctuary aims to protect coastal and ocean waters and the homeland of the Northern Chumash Tribe. The marine sanctuary will be the country’s 17th—but it represents a key milestone as the first one to be nominated for protection by Indigenous people.

The 4,500-square-mile-sanctuary protects at-risk species such as shorebirds, whales, dolphins, sea turtles and sea otters. Its official designation from the Biden-Harris administration this month came after more than a decade-long push from the Northern Chumash Tribal Council and conservation groups for a protected area.

Now, the sanctuary is undergoing a legally required 45-day review period, but it’s expected to be finalized by December 15.

“We are almost there,” Violet Sage Walker, chairwoman for the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, says in a statement from the sanctuary, “and the significance of our collective effort will make history.”

Known as the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, the newly designated site stretches from the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo to the Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County. It will be protected from oil drilling and undersea mining, and the new safeguards will help conserve the region’s kelp forests, beaches, reefs and more than 200 NOAA-documented shipwrecks.

Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary

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Management of the sanctuary will involve collaboration between the federal government and local Indigenous groups.

“Tribal and Indigenous communities will be co-stewards, as informed by their values, knowledge and traditions,” says NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad in a statement.

Walker’s father, Fred Collins, nominated the site for sanctuary status in 2015 with NOAA. Collins died in 2021, before he was able to see his work come to fruition, and asked Walker to finish the effort for him.

“That’s all my dad ever wanted, that people would know that we are the stewards of this land,” says Walker to NPR’s Lauren Sommer. The new sanctuary is “a testament to [his] lifelong vision and dedication,” per the sanctuary’s statement.

Following her father’s death, Walker took over advocating for the sanctuary and worked with many groups to rally support.

“Generations of central coast residents, from tribal elders to college students, have knocked on doors, sent postcards and emails, circulated petitions, addressed local governments and community groups and held fundraisers on behalf of the marine sanctuary,” says Gianna Patchen, coordinator of the Santa Lucia Sierra Club chapter, to the Guardian’s Lucy Sherriff.

NOAA says the marine sanctuary will create opportunities for research and conservation alongside recreation and tourism and promote a coexistence with fisheries, which can still operate in the area.

The designated site is smaller than the originally proposed sanctuary, which encompassed about 7,000 square miles—roughly six times the size of Yosemite National Park. For example, the waters off Morro Bay, north of San Luis Obispo, were not included in the sanctuary despite being in the proposal because of plans to build an offshore wind farm there.

For Paul Michel, regional policy coordinator for the West Coast at NOAA, “there are still a lot of questions about how it’s going to work,” he says to the Los Angeles Times’ Noah Haggerty.

“I don’t have all the answers, but we’re going to figure this out together,” he adds. “We need to get together, roll up our sleeves and get busy learning from each other.”

The sanctuary will also lead to more public outreach and monitoring of the ecosystem to understand how climate change might be affecting it. One of NOAA’s challenges is to share this site with people to encourage support for ocean conservation, Michel says to NPR.

“People will protect what they love, and they won’t love it unless they understand it,” he tells the publication.

California Polytechnic State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, will help research the sanctuary’s ecosystem to monitor and track changes. Many educational programs will also be developed to engage the public, including a museum by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. All these efforts aim to understand the sanctuary better and engage people with it.

To Michel, it’s a little bit like an experiment, he tells the Los Angeles Times. “It will adapt and grow and evolve over time through collaborative co-stewardship.”

Alexa Robles-Gil | | READ MORE

Alexa Robles-Gil is a bilingual science journalist based in New York City. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, Undark, Inside Climate News and more.