Marine Mammals: CINMS

The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) off the coast of Southern California was designated in 1980. In 2005, NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and CINMS were considering six alternatives for adjusting the sanctuary's boundaries. Identifying how the six options overlaid with the distribution of marine resources was a critical consideration. To address this need, we conducted a biogeographic assessment.

The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) was formed in 1949 to study the ecological aspects of the Pacific sardine population collapse off California. Today, the focus has shifted to the study of the marine environment off the coast of California, the management of its living resources, and monitoring the indicators of El Nino and climate change.

The California Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project was started in July 2005 by the SeaDoc Society (UC Davis Wildlife Health Center). Since its inception, the Project has recovered more than 100 tons of lost fishing gear and other marine debris. The California Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project proposes to continue to help reduce the potential impact of lost fishing gear on living marine resources and underwater habitat by retrieving lost fishing gear from Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) and anywhere on the coast where it is a high priority for removal because of demonstrated or potential impacts to marine wildlife and people. 1-888-491-GEAR to report lost, abandoned, and discarded gear. 

Channel Islands Naturalist Corps volunteers are trained by CINMS and CINP to educate the public on board local marine excursion vessels conducting whale watch tours, natural history tours, and island trips. Channel Islands Naturalist Corps volunteers are trained to conduct citizen science on marine mammal field identification and general research. Research objectives of the program include the development of a comprehensive database of incidental marine mammal sightings and reports collected in the Santa Barbara Channel, CINMS and CINP.

Biological, geophysical, and anthropogenic sound sources all combine to make up an underwater acoustic environment, or “soundscape.” Because ocean water conducts light very poorly and conducts sound very well, many marine organisms rely on sound for communication, navigation, reproduction, and foraging. Using a network of moored hydrophones around the sanctuary, we can examine how soundscapes vary at each location and across sanctuary habitats.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Benioff Ocean Initiative are piloting a passive acoustic monitoring system to detect, classify, and report whale calls (blue, humpback, and fin) in near real time from a fixed autonomous platform in the Santa Barbara Channel, and provide these detections for use by managers.

The objective of this project is to establish a NOAA-operated network of ten ocean noise reference stations (ONRS) in US waters to monitor long-term changes and trends in the underwater ambient sound field.

The Pinniped Aerial Surveys Project conducts censuses of five species of pinnipeds (i.e., seals, sea lions, and fur seals) for monitoring trends and abundance of populations found in the United States. Pups and other age/sex classes are counted from color photographs taken at rookeries and haulouts during aerial surveys of islands and the mainland coast of California. Surveys are conducted in February for elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris), May through July for harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardii), and July for California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus), and northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus). Surveys are also conducted opportunistically at selected California sea lion rookeries in Baja California, Mexico during late-July and early-August.

NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary seeks to (1) maintain consistent marine mammal aerial monitoring to improve our understanding of endangered baleen whale species’ distribution and (2) apply these findings to better inform conservation management actions in the Santa Barbara Channel Region.