INTRO DUCTION 



The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) was 

 established in 1980 to protect areas off the Southern California coast 

 which contain significant marine resources. In the Designation Docu- 

 ment establishing the CINMS, the caretakers were directed to develop 

 and implement a comprehensive plan tor management ot the 

 CINMS's resources, to encourage wise and compatible uses of the area, 

 and to improve public awareness as an aid to appreciation and 

 protection. Tou'ards that end, the newly established management 

 included among its first official actions the issuance ot contracts to 

 assess the current state of knowledge. This report is the result of such 

 an assessment. Its purpose is to summarize information available on the 

 status of cetaceans 1 whales, dolphins and porpoises i in and near the 

 CINMS. This information is required so that responsible managers 

 and statt can correctly inform the public about use ot CINMS waters 

 by cetaceans, intelligently predict and assess affects on these animals of 

 current and planned activities (industrial, recreational and research 

 activities, fishing and water pollution ) withm and near the CINMS, 

 and plan to mitigate unwanted efTects where possible. The status of 

 cetaceans is best reviewed in the context of the basic environmental 

 conditions which affect their presence, abundance and seasonalit\' in 

 the area(s ) of interest. 



The CINMS includes all waters within 6 nm ot the tour northern 

 California Channel Islands ( Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San 

 Miguel and its adjacent islet^ and Santa Barbara Island, some 25 nm to 

 their southeast. Overall, the area set aside includes about 1250 nm of 

 sea surface. 



The islands and the CINMS are located in the Southern California 

 Bight (SCB). The SCB is on a broad expanse of well developed 

 continental shelf lands also referred to as "continental borderlands") 

 extending trom about Point Conception (ca. J4 jo N j on the north to 

 about Cabo Colnette, Baja California (ca. 31 00 N) on the south and 

 bordered on the u'est by the Patton Escarpment, a steep slope south 

 and west of the islands with contours bearing in the northwesterly 

 direction. Defined m this manner the SCB contains nominally 25,000 

 square nautical miles of ocean surface. Though varied in physiognomy 

 the region is dominated by the eight California Channel Islands — 

 hereafter often called simply the Channel Islands — the five in the 

 CINMS plus San Nicolas, Santa Catalina and San Clemente. (Some 

 researchers include in the listing the three Islas Coronados. located just 

 southwest of San Diego in Mexican territory. 1 



The sea bottom in the SCB is buckled by the Cortez-Santa Rosa 

 Ridge, three deep shelf basins 'Catalina, Santa Cruz and Santa 

 Monica ), n\'o important "channels" , San Pedro and Santa Barbara) 

 and a series ot minor escarpments, canyons, banks and sea mounts (e.g. 

 Cortez, Tanner, 60-mile and Farnsworth banks and Lausen Sea 

 Mount). The CINMS itself is well over the continental shelf contain- 

 ing waters largely less than about 6ofrns deep. Santa Barbara Island sits 

 atop a rather broad mesa surrounded by relatneh' shallow shell basins. 

 On their north side, the four northern islands front a broad shallow 

 basin, the dominant submarine feature of the Santa Barbara Channel. 

 Greatest depths in the CINMS are those near the southern and 

 western boundaries ot the northern islands. 



SVNT* \U>N1( • 



FlGURi; 1. The northern portions ot the Southern Caliiornia Bight showing the limits oi the Channel Isl.inds National M.irine Sanctuarw major 

 components of bottom topography, and major place names referred to in the text. (Courtesy Carol Pillsbur\- CINMS and Charlotte Carlisle j 



