Just off California’s southern coast lies a secret no one is trying to keep.
“It’s like the Serengeti of the sea right here,” Geoff Shester said, gazing off the bow of a transport boat hurtling toward the coast of Anacapa Island. He’s the California Campaign Director for Oceana, a group dedicated to preserving the oceans and their marine life.
Anacapa is part of California’s Channel Islands, a series of small islands comprising Channel Islands National Park. The islands are so pristine and biodiverse that Shester likes to call them the Galapagos of the north.
“Because they’re protected, we kind of get to go back in time to see what California might have looked like, you know, hundreds of years ago before, you know, humans came,” Shester said.
The marine sanctuary that protects the waters around Anacapa have helped foster a natural mecca for marine life. This area plays host to the largest congregation of blue whales and boasts more than one hundred species that are found nowhere else on Earth.
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“Addressing the planet’s ocean plastics problem”
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Gillnets are a backbone for the commercial fishing industry. They’re meant to trap fish of varying sizes by their gills. They help the commercial fishing industry bring in millions of dollars a year and keep it employing thousands of people in California alone. But often, these nets tangle up unintended targets: turtles and sharks, for instance.
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While there has been a lot of destruction, there are still amazing, beautiful places like this,” Shester said. “If we can restore their natural resilience, that’s something that we can leave behind for the future.”
