Santa Barbara Channel

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Looking south-southwest, across the Santa Barbara Channel; the city of Santa Barbara, California is below, and Santa Cruz Island is in the distance. Santa barbara channel.jpg
Looking south-southwest, across the Santa Barbara Channel; the city of Santa Barbara, California is below, and Santa Cruz Island is in the distance.

The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Southern California Bight and separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the Oxnard Plain in Ventura County.

Contents

It trends east–west, is approximately 130 kilometres (70 nmi) long and averages about 45 kilometres (24 nmi) across, becoming narrowest at its easternmost extremity where Anacapa Island is about 30 kilometres (16 nmi) from the mainland. During the last ice age, the four northern Channel Islands, including Santa Rosa Island, were conjoined into Santa Rosae, a single island that was only five miles (8 km) off the coast.

The islands are visible from the mainland on clear days. Excursion boats cross the channel, taking visitors to watch whales and visit the islands. In the perpendicular (east-west) direction, huge cargo ships and tankers occupy a major shipping lane on their way to or from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The Channel is the location of numerous oil fields, some of which have substantial reserves. These include the Ellwood, Summerland, Carpinteria offshore and Dos Cuadras fields. In 1969, the Dos Cuadras was the point of origin of a major oil spill, [1] which came about when oil spurted at high pressure through faults and cracks around a zone which had recently been drilled for the first time. Public outrage over the massive environmental damage inflicted by this spill, which covered hundreds of square miles of the channel and fouled beaches from Ventura to Goleta, was a major spur to the budding environmental movement. The Santa Barbara Channel contains the world's largest natural oil seepage – Coal Oil Point. Goleta Point is a nearby extension into the channel.

Point Arguello, a headland near the city of Lompoc, was the site of the Honda Point disaster in 1923, in which seven US Navy destroyers ran aground, in the largest peacetime loss of US Navy ships.

Prehistory

Prior to the Holocene era sea levels were considerably lower, such that the water width separating the islands from the mainland was much less, making biological colonization as well as human transport across the channel easier. In recent times the Native American Chumash peoples navigated these waters with ease in small watercraft, allowing communication and trade between island and mainland villages. C. Michael Hogan reviews some of the theories of colonization of the rare species Torrey Pine, Pinus torreyana to the islands, suggesting that it is likely that Chumash peoples carried the initial cones in their Tomols. [2] The pygmy mammoth, an extinct, endemic species, were capable swimmers able to cross the channel and adapt to the island environment by insular dwarfism.

Risk of ship-whale collisions

As of at least 2011, a few endangered species of whale (including blue, fin, and humpback) have begun to feed in a new area north of the Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands of the Santa Barbara Channel. These whales are at risk to be struck by ships passing through a shipping lane used to move goods south to Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. [3] About 100 collisions have been documented off of the coast of California since 1982, which includes a rate of about 6 per year today, possibly more due to the difficulty of observing the incidents. [4] [5] [6] Scientists estimate that over 80 endangered whales are killed from vessel collisions off the U.S. west coast each year. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Barbara County, California</span> County in California, United States

Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chumash people</span> Native American tribe of California

The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu in the south to Mt Pinos in the east. Their territory includes three of the Channel Islands: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel; the smaller island of Anacapa was likely inhabited seasonally due to the lack of a consistent water source. Historically, prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the names of the regions were called Obispeno, Purismeno, Cuyama, Emigdiano, Castaic, Ynezeno, Barbareno, Ventureno, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goleta, California</span> City in California, United States

Goleta is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 2000 census, the census-designated place (CDP) had a total population of 55,204. A significant portion of the census territory of 2000 did not include the newer portions of the city. The population of Goleta was 32,690 at the 2020 census. It is known for being close to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isla Vista, California</span> Community in California, United States

Isla Vista is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California, in the United States. As of 2020 census, the community had a population of 15,500. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined the community as a census-designated place (CDP). The majority of residents are college students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, or Santa Barbara City College. The beachside community of Isla Vista lies on a flat plateau about 30 feet (9 m) in elevation, separated from the beach by a bluff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Channel Islands (California)</span> Archipelago off the coast of southern California, US

The Channel Islands are an eight-island archipelago located within the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. They define the Santa Barbara Channel between the islands and the California mainland. The four Northern Channel Islands are part of the Transverse Ranges geologic province, and the four Southern Channel Islands are part of the Peninsular Ranges province. Five of the islands are within the Channel Islands National Park. The waters surrounding these islands make up Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. The Nature Conservancy was instrumental in establishing the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Channel Islands National Park</span> National park in California, United States

Channel Islands National Park is a national park of the United States, which consists of five of the eight Channel Islands off the coast of California. Although the islands are close to the shore of the densely populated state, they have been relatively undeveloped. The park covers 249,561 acres (100,994 ha), of which 79,019 acres (31,978 ha) are federal land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Cruz Island</span> Island in California, United States

Santa Cruz Island is located off the southwestern coast of Ventura, California, United States. It is the largest island in California and largest of the eight islands in the Channel Islands archipelago and Channel Islands National Park. Forming part of the northern group of the Channel Islands, Santa Cruz is 22 miles (35 km) long and 2 to 6 miles wide with an area of 61,764.6 acres (249.952 km2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Barbara Island</span> Island of the Channel Islands in California, United States

Santa Barbara Island is a small island of the Channel Islands archipelago in Southern California. It is protected within Channel Islands National Park, and its marine ecosystem is part of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Public passenger access to Santa Barbara Island is provided by the Island Packers ferry service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary</span> Marine sanctuary in the Pacific Coast of Southern California

The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is a sanctuary off the coast of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in Southern California 350 miles (563 km) south of San Francisco and 95 miles (153 km) north of Los Angeles. It was designated on October 2, 1980, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and was expanded in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Rosa Island (California)</span> Island of the Channel Islands in California, United States

Santa Rosa Island is the second largest of the Channel Islands of California at 53,195 acres. Santa Rosa is located about 26 miles (42 km) off the coast of Santa Barbara, California in Santa Barbara County and is part of Channel Islands National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugio State Beach</span> State beach in Santa Barbara County, California

Refugio State Beach is a protected state beach park in California, United States, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Santa Barbara. One of three state parks along the Gaviota Coast, it is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of El Capitán State Beach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1969 Santa Barbara oil spill</span> Oil platform blow-out fouled the coast of California resulting in environmental legislation

The Santa Barbara oil spill occurred in January and February 1969 in the Santa Barbara Channel, near the city of Santa Barbara in Southern California. It was the largest oil spill in United States waters at the time. It remains the largest oil spill to have occurred in the waters off California.

The history of Santa Barbara, California, begins approximately 13,000 years ago with the arrival of the first Native Americans. The Spanish came in the 18th century to occupy and Christianize the area, which became part of Mexico following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, the expanding United States acquired the town along with the rest of California as a result of defeating Mexico in the Mexican–American War. Santa Barbara transformed then from a small cluster of adobes into successively a rowdy, lawless Gold Rush era town; a Victorian-era health resort; a center of silent film production; an oil boom town; a town supporting a military base and hospital during World War II; and finally it became the economically diverse resort destination it remains in the present day. Twice destroyed by earthquakes, in 1812 and 1925, it was rebuilt after the second one in a Spanish Colonial style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coal Oil Point seep field</span> Marine petroleum seep area near Goleta, California

The Coal Oil Point seep field (COP) in the Santa Barbara Channel offshore from Goleta, California, is a marine petroleum seep area of about three square kilometres, within the Offshore South Ellwood Oil Field and stretching from the coastline southward more than three kilometers (1.9 mi). Major seeps are located in water depths from 20 to 80 meters. The seep field is among the largest and best studied areas of active marine seepage in the world. These perennial and continuous oil and gas seeps have been active on the northern edge of the Santa Barbara Channel for at least 500,000 years. The combined seeps in the field release about 40 tons of methane per day and about 19 tons of reactive organic gas ; about twice the hydrocarbon air pollution released by all the cars and trucks in Santa Barbara County in 1990. The liquid petroleum produces a slick that is many kilometres long and when degraded by evaporation and weathering, produces tar balls which wash up on the beaches for miles around.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field</span>

The Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field is a large oil and gas field underneath the Santa Barbara Channel about eight miles southeast of Santa Barbara, California. Discovered in 1968, and with a cumulative production of over 260 million barrels of oil, it is the 24th-largest oil field within California and the adjacent waters. As it is in the Pacific Ocean outside of the 3-mile tidelands limit, it is a federally leased field, regulated by the U.S. Department of the Interior rather than the California Department of Conservation. It is entirely produced from four drilling and production platforms in the channel, which as of 2009 were operated by Dos Cuadras Offshore Resources (DCOR), LLC, a private firm based in Ventura. A blowout near one of these platforms – Unocal's Platform A – was responsible for the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill that was formative for the modern environmental movement, and spurred the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mescalitan Island</span> Island in California

Mescalitan Island is a mesalike island located about 10 miles (16 km) west of Santa Barbara, California, United States, near the outlet of the Goleta Slough into the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bombardment of Ellwood</span> 1942 Japanese naval attack off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, USA

The Bombardment of Ellwood during World War II was a naval attack by a Japanese submarine against United States coastal targets near Santa Barbara, California in February 1942. Though the damage was minimal, the event was key in triggering the West Coast invasion scare and influenced the decision to intern Japanese-Americans. The event also marked the first shelling of the North American mainland during the conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugio oil spill</span> 2015 pipeline leak on the coast of California

The Refugio oil spill on May 19, 2015, contaminated one of the most biologically diverse areas of the West Coast of the United States with 142,800 U.S. gallons of crude oil. The corroded pipeline that caused the spill closed indefinitely, resulting in financial impacts to the county estimated as high as $74 million as it and a related pipeline remained out of service for three years. The cost of the cleanup was estimated by the company to be $96 million with overall expenses including expected legal claims and potential settlements to be around $257 million.

The Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County, California is a rural coastline along the Santa Barbara Channel roughly bounded by Goleta Point on the south and the north boundary of the county on the north. This last undeveloped stretch of Southern California coastline consists of dramatic bluffs, isolated beaches and terraced grasslands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary</span> Marine sanctuary in the Pacific Coast of Southern California

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is a National Marine Sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties on the Central Coast of California. It was designated on October 11, 2024, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It is the first marine sanctuary to have been proposed by an Indigenous group. It protects nationally significant natural, cultural, and historical resources in Central California's coastal and ocean waters and offers opportunities for research, community engagement, and education and outreach activities.

References

  1. ↑ "A history of the 1969 oil spill event". Geog.ucsb.edu. 1969-01-29. Archived from the original on 2016-11-07. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Miller, Leila (2019-08-16). "In the Santa Barbara Channel, an underwater sound system tries to keep whales and ships apart". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  4. ↑ Barboza, Tony (July 27, 2011). "Trying to reduce ship-whale collisions in Santa Barbara Channel". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
  5. ↑ Miller, Leila (2019-08-16). "In the Santa Barbara Channel, an underwater sound system tries to keep whales and ships apart". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  6. ↑ Orozco, Lance (September 18, 2020). "Scientists Launch New Technology in Santa Barbara Channel Intended To Protect Whales Against Ships". kclu.org. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  7. ↑ Rockwood, R. Cotton; Calambokidis, John; Jahncke, Jaime (2017-08-21). "High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection". PLOS One. 12 (8): e0183052. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1283052R. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183052 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   5565115 . PMID   28827838.

34°14′31″N119°53′24″W / 34.24194°N 119.89000°W / 34.24194; -119.89000

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