CA - ‘We felt so betrayed’: Indigenous tribe reels after exclusion from US marine sanctuary
The Chumash tribe had advocated for California’s central coast to be protected, but a draft management plan left out the stretch they had hoped would be protected
iolet Sage Walker stands on the bow of Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship and looks out at Morro Rock jutting up from the Pacific Ocean. The dramatic promontory – known as Lisamu’ in Chumash, the language of Walker’s tribe – is part of a stunning stretch of California coastline she hoped would soon be part of a sprawling new marine sanctuary six times the size of Yosemite.
Walker is the chairwoman of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, a small group of Indigenous Americans who once lived along the coast of San Luis Obispo county. Records of their occupation of the central coast date back to 18,000 years.
The tribe has been tirelessly campaigning for the central coast to be designated as a marine sanctuary – a fight Walker’s father, Fred Collins, started more than five decades ago – and was confident the sanctuary would go ahead after a successful public comment period last year drew 10,000 supporting signatures.
But then, last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) released a draft management plan for the sanctuary that left the tribe reeling. The stretch of coast they had advocated for – from Cambria to Morro Bay – had been left out. Instead, Noaa’s proposed sanctuary would start just south of Morro Bay, stretching down to Gaviota. The reason, Noaa told the Guardian, is because a marine sanctuary is not compatible with offshore wind – and Morro Bay is set to be the hub of the country’s biggest offshore wind development project.
“We felt so betrayed,” says Walker. “We really thought we were going to get the marine sanctuary we had campaigned for, we thought we were going to get protection for the entire central Californian coastline.”
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Walker is traveling from Long Beach to Morro Bay onboard the Arctic Sunrise in an attempt to raise awareness of what is at stake if this area is not protected. She’s hitching a ride with the 16-strong international Greenpeace crew. After dinner, most of the crew gather in the ship’s mess to hear the struggles of Indigenous people to safeguard the land – as well as the tribe’s creation story, which springs from the idyllic Channel Islands, whose sheer cliffs and rugged mountains the ship sails past on its way to Morro Bay.
The mood onboard is somber but electric; everyone is here with the same goal: to protect the ocean from offshore wind, oil drilling and deep sea mining. Members of the crew nod their heads in understanding as Walker recounts the tribe’s fight against government agencies, big corporations and power-driven politicians. The tribe has less than a month to encourage people to speak out and sway Noaa’s decision on the size of the sanctuary and how it is managed, before the government agency’s public comment period officially closes on 25 October.
“I need to know, in 60 days’ time when this last round of public comments is over, that I’ve done everything I possibly could have done to make this sanctuary happen,” Walker says.
One of the tribe’s driving factors for establishing the sanctuary is to protect the area from the offshore windfarms slated to be built along the coast. Morro Bay, an area of rich biodiversity – including part of the country’s last remaining population of endangered sea otters – would become a hub for offshore wind if the sanctuary’s boundaries do not extend to include it.
