Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary Finally Officially Official 

Vulnerable wildlife, including endangered southern sea otters, leatherback sea turtles, and blue whales, can now, officially, find sanctuary along the Central Coast. 

A decades-long campaign to establish the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary concluded its final chapter on November 30, after its federal designation by the Biden–Harris administration finally went into effect, following state review. But the story is not over.

The official designation marks the beginning of protecting the area’s 4,543 square miles of ocean and coastline from Gaviota and Point Conception to Pismo Beach and southern San Luis Obispo County. 

Under its new title, the sanctuary, with its unique deep-sea topography, hundreds of shipwrecks, and spiritual and historical significance, will be safeguarded from new mining and drilling operations, pollution, and other risks.  

The label will also facilitate climate solutions by promoting the health of kelp forests and other ocean habitats, as well as provide opportunities to advance cultural and environmental education and outreach. Fishing, however, will still be permitted.

Efforts to make the sanctuary a reality spanned two generations within the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, whose former chair, the late Fred Collins, first nominated the sanctuary in 2015. It will be the first of its kind to be Indigenous-nominated and co-managed, as well as the third largest in the U.S. and the first to be designated in ocean waters in more than 30 years. 

“Grandmother Ocean has been providing life to the Chumash Peoples for over 10,000 years; now is the time for all communities to work together and assist her in rebuilding her Vibrant Thrivability for all future generations,” Collins said before he passed away in 2021. 

The sanctuary will be co-managed by the state and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, which is the only federally recognized band of Chumash. 

Some cable-shaped kinks did have to be ironed out prior to the designation. Offshore wind lease holders, who plan to build new turbines near Morro Bay, worried that the designation would impact their ability to lay cables along the sea floor to connect the turbines to the onshore grid. 

However, the sanctuary’s management plan lays the groundwork for a later expansion of the marine sanctuary boundaries to cover Avila Beach and Morro Bay, after the cables are laid, connecting the new sanctuary with the southernmost border of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. (But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will likely have to go through the entire designation process again.)

Representative Salud Carbajal, Indigenous communities, and offshore wind leaseholders endorsed this solution, opting for a “why not both” approach, despite conservationists’ concerns that leaving the strip of ocean near Morro Bay out of the sanctuary may make it more vulnerable to mining and drilling for the time being.  

“The historic designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary comes not a moment too soon,” Carbajal said. “As our oceans and communities face unprecedented challenges from a changing marine environment, this new sanctuary comes at a critical time for our region.”