The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the
Southern California Bight and separates the
mainland of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
from the northern
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
. It is generally south of the city of
Santa Barbara, and west of the
Oxnard Plain
The Oxnard Plain is a large coastal plain in southwest Ventura County, California, United States surrounded by the mountains of the Transverse ranges. The cities of Oxnard, Camarillo, Port Hueneme and much of Ventura as well as the unincorpo ...
in
Ventura County
Ventura County () is a County (United States), county in Southern California, the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, California ...
.
It trends east-west, is approximately long and averages about across, becoming narrowest at its easternmost extremity where
Anacapa Island is about 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
whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
s 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
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
and
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporat ...
.
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
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into t ...
, 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 environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...
. The Santa Barbara Channel contains the world's largest natural oil seepage -
Coal Oil Point
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 so ...
.
Goleta Point
Goleta Point (also known as Campus Point) is a small peninsula on the central coast in the U.S. state of California. It is
located southwest of the city of Goleta. The point forms an extension into Santa Barbara Channel and is situated withi ...
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
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
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 people
The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Mali ...
s 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
The Torrey pine (''Pinus torreyana'') is a rare pine species in California, United States. It is a critically endangered species growing only in coastal San Diego County, and on Santa Rosa Island, offshore from Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara ...
, ''
Pinus torreyana'' to the islands, suggesting that it is likely that Chumash peoples carried the initial cones in their Tomols. The
pygmy mammoth, an extinct, endemic species, were capable swimmers able to cross the channel and adapt to the island environment by
insular dwarfism
Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is disti ...
.
Risk of ship-whale collisions
As of at least 2011, a few endangered species of whale (including
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
,
fin, and
humpback) have begun to feed in a new area north of the
Santa Cruz and
Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose.
Santa Rosa may also refer to:
Places Argentina
* Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city
* Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca
* Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca
*Santa Rosa, La Pampa
* S ...
islands of the Santa Barbara Channel. These whales are at risk to be struck by ships passing through a
shipping lane
A sea lane, sea road or shipping lane is a regularly used navigable route for large water vessels (ships) on wide waterways such as oceans and large lakes, and is preferably safe, direct and economic. During the Age of Sail, they were determined ...
used to move goods south to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
and
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporat ...
ports. 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.
Scientists estimate that over 80 endangered whales are killed from vessel collisions off the U.S west coast each year.
See also
*
Offshore oil and gas in California
References
External links
Oil companies continue efforts for permission to drill in the channel
{{Coord, 34, 14, 31, N, 119, 53, 24, W, type:waterbody_scale:500000, display=title
Landforms of the Channel Islands of California
Channel
Channel
Straits of California