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

NOAA designated the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary this month, following a decade of advocacy by supporters. The protected site will be finalized after a 45-day review period

Alexa Robles-Gil
Daily Correspondent

October 21, 2024 4:39 p.m.



Aerial view of Government Point, located within Point Conception State Marine Reserve and the newly designated Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary NOAA


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.

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