The ocean surrounding California’s Channel Islands can feel like another world. Beneath the surface sway towering kelp forests that are patrolled by huge sheephead fish, striking in pink and black with protruding teeth, along with refrigerator-sized giant sea bass. Seals and sea lions swim among colorful sponges and sea stars. “We sometimes think of the Channel Islands as our Galapagos in California,” said Doug McCauley, a professor of marine science at UC Santa Barbara.

The cornucopia of marine wildlife here wasn’t always this vibrant. Violet Sage Walker, the chair of California’s Northern Chumash Tribal Council, recalled documentary footage showing the Channel Islands before marine protections were enacted, in an era when intensive commercial fishing had damaged kelp forests and key species. “It looked like Mars, like a dead planet,” she said.

But beginning in 2003, areas around the Channel Islands were designated as California Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs — a conservation strategy akin to creating underwater state parks. With roughly 150 square miles of protected waters, the islands now function as a safe haven for marine flora and fauna, essentially acting as nurseries for baby fish and protecting dozens of iconic species like kelp bass, rockfish, leopard sharks, and more.

Now, for the first time in 15 years, California officials are considering proposals to create new areas and expand existing ones, as part of the state’s first-ever review of its MPA network. “This is a historic opportunity that we don’t want to miss,” said McCauley.

Building California’s marine protections

MPAs are designated ocean zones where restrictions on activities such as fishing, oil and gas drilling, and other seafloor disturbances can help preserve marine ecosystems and give damaged habitats room to recover. Protections vary by site, but in areas where these kinds of disturbances are removed, “you have larger fish, more abundant wildlife, and a healthier habitat,” said Sandy Aylesworth, director of the Pacific Initiative, Nature, at the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC.

Among the 2026 potential additions are two new proposals for protected areas on the state’s Central Coast: the Point Sal and Mishopshno State Marine Conservation Area proposals. Each of these sites is co-sponsored by a California Tribe in collaboration with NRDC, and in the case of Mishopshno, also by the Environmental Defense Center, a Santa Barbara-based non-profit. These Tribally sponsored proposals represent a first for California’s MPA network, and offer the state an opportunity to formally recognize the longstanding role of California Tribes as ocean stewards and make good on its commitment to Tribal marine stewardship.

A rare convergence of habitats

The proposed Point Sal State Marine Conservation Area would include roughly nine square miles off the Santa Barbara County coast. Here, a headland shelters the waters on its southern side from the wind, creating calmer conditions where fish larvae can linger and mature safely. Nearby Lion Rock is a gathering place for seals and sea lions and a roosting area for seabirds, while kelp forests and rocky reefs provide habitat for fish, sharks, sea otters, and other wildlife. Over 880 sea lions have been documented there by scientists in a single day. “It’s a little tiny paradise,” Walker said.

For the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, which co-sponsored the proposal, Point Sal is also a place of deep cultural significance. Chairwoman Walker described ancient village sites up and down the coast and a relationship to the area woven through Chumash history. “Our people lived and thrived there for thousands of years,” she said.

Preserving marine ecosystems and cultural connections

That history is central to another feature of the current MPA review: Tribal stewardship. California’s current MPAs don’t have formal Tribal co-management systems, though the Tribes have stewarded the lands and waters of the Central Coast for over 10,000 years. The Point Sal and Mishopshno proposals are among the first potential additions to the MPA network led by California Tribes.

Walker said she wants California to create a clearer pathway for coastal Tribes to continue to participate in ocean stewardship, including access for cultural practices and a role in management. “Being able to reconnect and offer our vision and our help with dealing with climate resiliency and coastal stewardship is critical,” she said.

The proposed Mishopshno State Marine Conservation Area offers another example of what that kind of Tribal stewardship could look like. Farther down the coast, near Carpinteria, is another unusual convergence of habitats. Just offshore sits a 1.6-mile rocky reef supporting one of the Central Coast’s most enduring kelp forests.

Nearby sandy-bottom habitat, beach, and a protected salt marsh create connected nursery and feeding areas for marine life, supporting hundreds of bat rays, large fish species, and juvenile white sharks. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, NRDC and the Environmental Defense Center have sponsored a proposal to protect the area, which is named for a historic Chumash village in the region.

A refuge for marine wildlife

Shark filmmaker, documentarian, and researcher Carlos Gauna has spent thousands of hours filming the marine environment that would be protected by the Mishopshno MPA. “I live and breathe sharks daily, and this is one of the most amazing spots in the world to see a great white shark. There is literally nothing like it anywhere else on the California coast,” he said.

In his years of filming there, Gauna said, he’s documented illegal fishing, jet skiers purposely ramming into wildlife, and other harms to the local marine population. “I’ve seen sharks get hit and injured by boats, or even deliberately killed,” he says, noting that the proposed MPA might help guard against such damaging actions because its status as an MPA would signal to visitors that it’s a safe haven for marine wildlife.

He also points to successful protected areas as a model for what the new Mishopshno MPA might achieve. At Cabo Pulmo in Baja California, Gauna said, the contrast across the protected-area boundary is night and day. Inside is a thriving, abundant ecosystem. “It’s one of the most stable and beautiful areas in the world for marine wildlife,” he said. Outside, where there is intensive fishing activity, “it’s an underwater desert.”

An urgent moment

The state’s voters treasure California’s iconic coastal waters and advocate for keeping them healthy: Roughly 70% of California voters support expanding MPA protections at both Point Sal and Mishopshno. And while a small group of fishing interests opposes the new MPA proposals, there is no scientific evidence that California’s MPAs cause financial harm to fisheries. In certain circumstances, the opposite is true: a 2021 study of two Southern California MPAs established in 2012 found that fishing boats in the surrounding areas had increased lobster catch by about 225% over six years.

The California Fish and Game Commission final votes on the proposed changes to the California MPA network are scheduled for October 14th-16th. “We have an opportunity now to protect the areas where California has jurisdiction, at a time when the Federal government is undoing protections more broadly,” McCauley said. Given that the periodic reviews of California’s MPA network only happen once every ten years, the Fish and Game Commission is unlikely to consider these two proposals again for many years.

The outcome of the October 2026 process could help define the next chapter of California’s marine protection network. For Walker, the stakes extend beyond this unique moment. “The ocean, given the opportunity, will thrive,” she said. “But we have to give it the space and the time to heal itself.”

California’s Fish and Game Commission are deciding whether to expand MPAs this month. Now is our chance to protect these precious areas and the marine life that call them home. Join NRDC in calling on the California Fish and Game Commission to conserve these special areas of our Coast.