Designated in 2024, Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is America’s 17th national marine sanctuary, the sixth off the U.S. West Coast, and one of the largest in the National Marine Sanctuary System.

Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary covers 4,543 square miles of coastal and ocean waters offshore Central California stretching nearly 60 miles from shore and down to a maximum depth of 11,580 feet. The sanctuary protects and collaboratively manages natural and cultural resources, fascinating maritime historical resources, and rich Indigenous cultural history along 116 miles of coastline stretching from just south of Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County to Naples Reef on the Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County. Cities along this stretch of coastline include: Avila Beach, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, Goleta, neighboring Santa Barbara, and further inland lies San Luis Obispo, Guadalupe, Santa Maria, and Lompoc.

Species and Habitats

Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary’s waters contain remarkable marine biodiversity, productive ecosystems, and sensitive species and habitats. Productive fishing grounds and economically important recreation and tourism activities thrive in sanctuary waters.

Special geologic features like Rodriguez Seamount and Santa Lucia Bank, along with an important biogeographic transition zone and upwelling, create unique ecological conditions in the area that support marine biodiversity and productivity. Upwelling along the California Current drives the sanctuary’s flourishing biological productivity, supporting high abundance of seabirds, marine mammals, sea turtles, fishes, invertebrates, and marine plants and algae. Many threatened or endangered species are drawn to these waters—such as blue whales, snowy plovers, black abalone, and leatherback sea turtles—because they rely on habitats, physical features, or prey found in the sanctuary. Different types of ecological habitats found within the sanctuary include kelp forests, rocky reefs, deep-sea coral gardens, and sandy beaches.

Indigenous Peoples

The sanctuary’s coast and waters hold deep cultural, spiritual, and historical significance for the Chumash Peoples, as well as for the Salinan Peoples in areas extending north of the sanctuary. These waters and adjacent lands have remained home to coastal, ocean-going Indigenous Peoples since time immemorial. The waters that compose Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary cover now submerged ancestral lands. From the last Ice Age and up to several thousand years ago, what is now seabed was dry land. Submerged cultural resources, including possible ancient village locations once present along submerged paleoshorelines, now receive long-term protection through sanctuary regulations.

The sanctuary honors the deep cultural and historical importance of this place to the region’s Indigenous Peoples. Respect will guide community-focused efforts to protect the marine environment and ensure long-term care of this treasured ocean place.

The sanctuary provides resource protection and ecosystem-based management through applied research, locally-based education and outreach programs, and conservation measures that are community-based and respectfully informed by Indigenous collaborative co-stewardship.

Maritime Heritage

The coast of this area and its offshore waters were a highway for maritime trade in the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods, and the ships that wrecked on the coast span that history. They include coastal schooners and other small sailing craft that carried produce and lumber up and down the coast in the days before rail and highways connected California’s communities. Over 200 shipwrecks are documented in the region, including the Gold Rush era steamship Yankee Blade, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Of the ocean steamships carrying resources and passengers that wrecked in these waters, Yankee Blade is the oldest. Yankee Blade was one of a number of wooden sidewheelers that carried passengers to and from San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Its tragic loss was one of the coast’s worst known maritime tragedies.