New Triumph for the Marine Sanctuary

The proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is now recognized as a Mission Blue Hope Spot. This collaboration between the Northern Chumash Tribal Council and Mission Blue highlights the importance of designating the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary by mid-2024 to permanently protect the sacred and irreplaceable ocean ecosystems.

The Hope Spot encompasses the entirety of the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary’s biggest possible boundaries, including over 7,500 square miles of ocean off of the Central Coast of California, home to an abundance of vital and vulnerable environmentally and culturally significant sites. The sanctuary would protect these waters from destructive practices, like oil drilling, seismic testing, seabed mining, habitat destruction, and loss of Chumash cultural sites. It will implement Tribal collaborative management and a community stakeholder advisory council to incorporate local voices in NOAA’s adaptive management. The late Chief Fred Collins of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council nominated this as the first Tribally nominated National Marine Sanctuary in the United States to permanently protect these waters and Chumash Cultural Heritage. His daughter, Chair Violet Sage Walker of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council is finishing her father’s dream of the Chumash Sanctuary campaign and carrying on the Chumash legacy of stewardship.