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February 28, 2024
Featured picture: Northern Elephant Seal © Robert Schwemmer
(CALIFORNIA CENTRAL COAST) – The chilly Pacific waters, rocky shorelines and rolling golden dunes that mark California’s iconic Central Coast have been residence to the Chumash Peoples, amongst others, since time immemorial. Submerged villages of over 15,000 years previous at the moment are the place sea otters float with their younger and snowy plovers scuttle throughout the sand. Quick ahead to 10 years in the past, the late Chief Fred Collins proposed the primary Tribally nominated Nationwide Marine Sanctuary in the USA to completely defend over 7,000 sq. miles of irreplaceable ocean ecosystems and to protect Chumash cultural heritage. At this time, his daughter, Violet Sage Walker, Chair, Northern Chumash Tribal Council, is decided to hold on the Chumash Legacy of stewardship and to see her father’s dream by way of.
![](https://missionblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/jalamabeach_robertschwemmer_noaa.jpg)
Worldwide marine conservation non-profit Mission Blue has named the proposed Chumash Heritage Nationwide Marine Sanctuary a Hope Spot in help of the pending everlasting federal designation that can safeguard the realm’s marine habitats indefinitely from damaging actions, comparable to seabed mining and oil drilling. Violet Sage Walker, Chair of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, and Andrew Christie, not too long ago retired Chapter Director of the Sierra Membership Santa Lucia Chapter are the Hope Spot Champions. The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is presently within the designation course of for the Chumash Heritage Sanctuary, with an official determination focused for mid-2024. Mission Blue’s Hope Spot declaration highlights the significance of NOAA formally designating the Chumash Heritage Nationwide Marine Sanctuary this yr.
Dr. Sylvia Earle, founding father of Mission Blue, says, “Defending these submerged historic villages from future industrial encroachment will make sure the resting locations of their ancestors stay undisturbed. The cultural significance of Chumash heritage makes this Nationwide Marine Sanctuary the one considered one of its sort. Bravo to the Northern Chumash Tribal Council for main this essential nomination as a Nationwide Marine Sanctuary and as a key a part of the worldwide community of Hope Spots.”
Walker feedback on the proposal, “The objective is to attain the most important doable Sanctuary and set up collaborative administration between all Tribes. Standing as a Nationwide Marine Sanctuary would function the first mechanism to protect the marine life and cultural websites as they’re and defend them for our future.”
![](https://missionblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/kelpforest_dan_griffin.jpg)
If authorized, the proposed Sanctuary would defend roughly 7,600 sq. miles of water and shoreline, extending from Cambria to Gaviota Creek, linking the Monterey Bay Nationwide Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) to the north with the Channel Islands Nationwide Marine Sanctuary to the south, offering a steady hall for native species displaced by warming waters. The western boundary is west of the submerged Santa Lucia Financial institution alongside the Santa Lucia Escarpment. The jap boundary is outlined by the imply excessive tide line. Nonetheless, the map that NOAA has proposed excludes Morro Bay, considering future wind vitality transmission cables that can should be delivered to shore to the Morro Bay energy plant and linked to the grid. The Bureau of Ocean Power Administration estimates there may very well be as many as 30 cables throughout the hall. “Morro Rock is considered one of our sacred factors, and we’re hoping to work with the offshore wind trade so Morro Bay is just not neglected of the Sanctuary,” Walker explains.
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President Joe Biden first spoke of the proposed Sanctuary in a speech on Might 31, 2023, with these phrases: “With enter from Tribal companions, my Administration additionally started the designation course of for a number of new nationwide marine sanctuaries, together with the Hudson Canyon within the Atlantic Ocean and the Chumash Heritage Nationwide Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Southern California.” Because of the President’s proclamation, NOAA held an open commentary interval by way of October 2023 by which they obtained greater than 100,000 feedback from the general public in help of the Sanctuary. Contemplating the timing of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, Walker and Christie are hoping NOAA approves their proposal earlier than this fall.
“President Biden’s 30×30 Coverage is groundbreaking as it’s the first time U.S. coverage has included Indigenous Individuals as important environmental safety collaborators,” Christie elaborates.
Walker says, “We ask that NOAA assist educate not solely the advantages of defending our ocean but in addition promote my group and ancestors’ spirit of stewardship. We’re the unique Chumash caretakers.”
![](https://missionblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/crowdatrock_amykenney.jpg)
The proposed Chumash Heritage Nationwide Marine Sanctuary Hope Spot encompasses an exhaustive checklist of environmentally and culturally vital websites. Highlights embrace submerged sacred Chumash websites, main shipwrecks, persistent and seasonal upwellings, Arguello Canyon, seasonal upwellings, the Santa Lucia Financial institution upthrust block, the Rodriguez Seamount, the Kashtayit State Marine Conservation Space, a number of California Division of Fish and Wildlife Marine Protected Areas, wetlands, rookeries, kelp forests, and different vital nationally and internationally necessary marine life and marine ecosystems. The world additionally holds California’s largest coastal dunes complicated, quite a few State and County Parks and Seashores, and contains islands, uncovered reefs, and pinnacles alongside the shoreline.
![](https://missionblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/White-spotted-rose-anemone_robert_schwemmer-1.jpg)
The Northern Chumash Tribal Council is anxious about present threats to the realm together with proposed oil drilling, seismic testing, seabed mining, species eradication, habitat destruction, the lack of Chumash cultural websites, and the lack of Chumash historic data.
Christie explains how a Sanctuary designation may elevate the extent of safety for the realm. “Elements of the proposed sanctuary are California Division of Fish and Wildlife Marine Protected Areas, and elevating its safety to the extent of Nationwide Marine Sanctuary will completely safeguard your complete space, sustaining its ecological integrity into the longer term.”
This area of the California coast has witnessed a rise in different offshore industrial actions and proposed improvement being funneled into the realm between Channel Islands Nationwide Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) and MBNMS. Doubtlessly impactful actions embrace untreated agricultural irrigation from the Central Valley, current sewage outfalls and wastewater remedy, once-through cooling from the Diablo Canyon nuclear energy plant, pressures of human inhabitants progress, proposed offshore industrial developments, and seismic surveys. With the present and proposed ocean developments on this area, sanctuary designation would play an important position in defending the well being of the ocean and native communities by implementing collaborative adaptive administration.
![](https://missionblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/reunitetherock_robert_schwemmer.jpg)
Trying to the longer term, the Hope Spot Champions search to develop and lengthen public schooling and outreach utilizing current guests’ facilities, tourism bureaus, academic establishments, museums, NGOs and adjoining sanctuary assets in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
Walker concludes, “The safety of those waters will present hope that after a whole bunch of years of oppression, genocide, and environmental destruction, the preservation of Chumash tradition, respect for Chumash ancestors, and respect for Grandmother Ocean could lastly be restored. We’re excited to hitch Mission Blue with this Hope Spot to emphasise the significance of defending our ocean proper now.”
About Northern Chumash Tribal Council
The Northern Chumash Tribal Council (NCTC) is a California Native American Tribe and non-profit group in San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County. As a frontrunner in native to international advocacy for Indigenous Peoples and environmental justice, they champion alternatives to guard our planet and our communities with Indigenous management on the helm. NCTC is devoted to empowering Tribal members and the overall group by way of a various array of community-driven initiatives centered across the interconnection between people and Mom Earth. They’re champions of environmental justice all through their initiatives, together with cultural heritage safety, Indigenous management advocacy, incorporating of TEK and western science, ecological stewardship, group improvement, ecosystem restoration, sustainable farming and ranching, and extra. The lands and waters have been residence to the Chumash Peoples since time immemorial. The Northern Chumash Tribal Council is dedicated to carrying on this ancestral legacy of stewardship and relational connections with Mom Earth and Grandmother Ocean.
NCTC is the nominator of the primary Tribally nominated nationwide marine sanctuary in the USA, the proposed Chumash Heritage Nationwide Marine Sanctuary. This marketing campaign is actively working in direction of getting contiguous ocean safety on the Central Coast of California with Indigenous management on the helm. NCTC collaborates with and mobilizes a big community of numerous companions and communities, together with Tribes, Indigenous organizations, local people members, scientists, environmental organizations, youth leaders, religion communities, zoos and aquariums, federal, state, and native elected representatives, and extra. The Chumash Sanctuary is within the ultimate stretch in direction of designation, with a mid-2024 estimated designation timeline. The ultimate public remark interval concluded in October 2023 with over 100,000 feedback and 99% supporting sanctuary designation. Securing sanctuary safety might be an enormous win within the development of environmental justice in marine safety.
In regards to the Sierra Membership, Santa Lucia Chapter
The Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Membership was established in 1968 and represents the Sierra Membership’s members and supporters in San Luis Obispo County, California. The chapter is a primarily a volunteer-run group, with a devoted group that helps chapter members and the broader group keep knowledgeable, get outside, take motion on conservation points, and have interaction with elected officers. The Santa Lucia Chapter’s packages actively have interaction in an intersectional array of native environmental schooling and advocacy on the Central Coast. This contains marine protections, land administration, improvement of renewable vitality, phasing out fossil fuels, zero waste, local weather change mitigation and environmental, social and racial justice. Over the many years, chapter leaders have been instrumental within the designation of three main wilderness areas and The Bishop Peak city protected open area space; the prevention of damaging improvement in weak communities and ecosystems; the implementation of metropolis and county Group Selection Power insurance policies; and a lot extra. The Santa Lucia Chapter was a founding supporter of the proposed Chumash Heritage Nationwide Marine Sanctuary marketing campaign alongside Chief Fred Collins of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council. The chapter has advocated for nationwide marine sanctuary safety for the Central Coast’s waters since 2006. Their group stays a pivotal a part of the Chumash Heritage Nationwide Marine Sanctuary marketing campaign coalition within the ultimate levels of designation.
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