What is the Proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, and Why Is It Special?

This article was written for a class assignment, and was not subject to journalistic standards.

Ten thousand years ago, a thriving civilization lived along the central coast of what we now call California. Long before its sunny Mediterranean climate, world-class research universities, and vibrant casinos drew millions of annual visitors to this region, it was a veritable breadbasket supporting tens of thousands of Chumash Native Americans, almost all of whom relied upon the bounty of the sea for subsistence. The rich kelp forests, sandy intertidal zone, and unique coastal upwelling of this stretch of coastline provides nutrients and resources that helped the Chumash peoples thrive for millennia—before colonizers arrived and changed the course of their history.

This image is the property of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, and is only reproduced here as part of a school assignment.

Today the region is overseen by countless government agencies associated with the descendants of the original colonizers. County governments fight fires, local cities build roads and schools, the state manages various coastal resources, and, north of Cambria and south of Point Conception, lie two entities overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal agency: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) and the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS). 

These National Marine Sanctuaries are designed to “designate and protect areas of the marine environment with special national significance due to their conservation, recreational, ecological, historical, scientific, cultural, archeological, educational or esthetic qualities as national marine sanctuaries.” Yet since the first National Marine Sanctuary—the Civil War-era shipwreck of the U.S.S. Monitor—was designated in 1975, all 15 regions have been nominated by individuals or organizations associated with colonizers.

All of that changed in 2015 when NOAA accepted a nomination submitted by the Northern Chumash Tribal Council to designate 156 miles of California’s coastline as the Proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary—the first such tribally-nominated designation in U.S. history. Per their sanctuary application, the Chumash indicate that designating this area as a sanctuary would help recognize and safeguard their heritage by protecting sacred sites, contributing to tourism development in the region, and protecting these waters from the threat of offshore oil and gas drilling. It would connect the MBNMS and CINMS, creating a protected area along California's coast hundreds of miles long.

The site of the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is home to unique onshore areas, including high coastal dunes and wetlands, which serve to protect the coastline from erosive processes chipping away at bluffs and beaches elsewhere. Cold, nutrient-rich waters brought by the California current and coastal upwelling processes ensure a vibrant diversity of marine life, from the rockfish inhabiting the region’s bountiful kelp forests to the thriving populations of southern sea otters, a keystone species that help preserve kelp forests by keeping urchin populations in check. Blue whales, gray whales, and humpback whales all travel and forage along the coast, while coastal rookeries provide haul-outs for sea lions. 

The diversity and abundance of marine life in this region make it clear that the area is worth protecting. But what will a designation of a national marine sanctuary actually accomplish? Aside from national attention, which will inevitably increase visitation and provide an estimated $23 million in economic activity and 600 new jobsThese waters would be protected from offshore oil and gas development. In 2015, an oil pipeline ruptured just a few miles south of the proposed sanctuary border, blanketing the coastline in crude oil. This not only closed access to beaches and state parks, but also resulted in millions of dollars of cleanup costs and lost economic opportunities—and compromised the fragile biodiversity of the area. 

Such irresponsible management of coastal resources is an affront to the sacred Chumash sites that lie under and around these waters, and, perhaps most importantly, this sanctuary designation would be a symbolic nod to the tribes that stewarded these lands and waters for thousands of years before the arrival of colonizers. Indeed, according to the official Chumash website designed to garner public support for this designation, it “provides an exceptional opportunity to advance the first tribal-nominated national marine sanctuary designation in the U.S., setting a precedent for elevating Indigenous perspectives and cultural values in ocean conservation.”

Designating a National Marine Sanctuary is difficult work. It requires two major steps—nomination (by an entity seeking to designate a sanctuary) and designation (by NOAA deciding that place will become a sanctuary)—each of which has long periods of research, scoping, and public input. Yet as the Biden Administration pursues its America the Beautiful campaign, seeking to conserve 30% of our lands and waters by 2030The official nomination for the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary has been accepted and is currently in the scoping process, where NOAA seeks input on what information should be included in their formal analysis of the sanctuary. 

While the sanctuary designation looks promising, it is far from final—not even the proposed name is guaranteed. Interested parties can register at https://chumashsanctuary.org/ to learn more about how to support the designation—including ensuring that this sanctuary honors the peoples that lived here for thousands of years before colonizers arrived by being designated as the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.

References

America the Beautiful. U.S. Department of the Interior. (2022, February 11). Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://www.doi.gov/priorities/america-the-beautiful 

Celebrate 50 years of Ocean Conservation and stewardship. NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. (n.d.). Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/#:~:text=National%20Marine%20Sanctuary%20System&text=The%20network%20includes%20a%20system,Rose%20Atoll%20marine%20national%20monuments. 

Chumash National Marine Sanctuary. (n.d.). About the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary - Protecting the Heritage of the Central Coast. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://chumashsanctuary.org/about 

Jane Clarke, Wesley Flannery. (2020) The post-political nature of marine spatial planning and modalities for its re-politicisation. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 22:2, pages 170-183.

Ladd TM, Bullington JA, Matson PG, Kudela RM, Iglesias-Rodríguez MD (2018) Exposure to oil from the 2015 Refugio spill alters the physiology of a common harmful algal bloom species, Pseudo-nitzschia australis, and the ubiquitous coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 603:61-78. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12710

Legislation - The National Marine Sanctuaries Act. National Marine Sanctuaries Act and Legislation | Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. (n.d.). Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/about/legislation/ 

Noozhawk. (n.d.). Cleanup under way for large oil spill near Refugio State Beach. Noozhawk.com Santa Barbara & Goleta Local News. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://www.noozhawk.com/article/oil_spill_reported_on_coast_near_refugio 

Scorse, Jason, and Judith Kildow. The Potential Economic Impacts of the Proposed Central Coast National Marine Sanctuary. The Sierra Club of California. Retrieved May 16, 2022 from https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/sce/santa-lucia-chapter/news/Econ_Report_for_Sierra_Club_9-25-14.pdf

US Department of Commerce, N. O. and A. A. (2013, June 1). What was the first national marine sanctuary to be designated? NOAA's National Ocean Service. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/firstnms.html#:~:text=The%20USS%20Monitor%20was%20designated,Sanctuary%20on%20January%2030%2C%201975 

Wesley Flannery & Micheál Ó Cinnéide (2012) Stakeholder Participation in Marine Spatial Planning: Lessons from the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, Society & Natural Resources, 25:8, 727-742, DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2011.627913