With all the literal and figurative noise in the Santa Barbara Channel, migratory whales looking to shack up in its waters often struggle and stress.
The channel — a designated Whale Heritage Area — is one of the most important whale migration routes in the United States, but it’s also a busy shipping lane where thousands of container ships transit cargo every year — a deadly threat to this underwater sanctuary.
With that in mind, a program was launched 10 years ago to protect the endangered humpbacks and Pacific blue whales that forage, breed, and birth their calves off Santa Barbara’s coast. Now, that same program will be expanding statewide thanks to Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature on Assemblymember Gregg Hart’s Assembly Bill 14 (AB 14 — coauthored by Assemblymembers Steve Bennett and Damon Connolly).