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Santa Barbara
June 24, 2000
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SSE is helping celebrate the marine sanctuaries today at Stearn’s Wharf in Santa Barbara, with people from the The Chumash Maritime Association, Sea Center, The National Park System, U.S. Forest Service, California State Park System, California Fish and Wildlife, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, Cabrillo High School, and many more. While the NOAA ship McArthur anchors offshore and entertains waves of visitors who are shuttled back and forth on small boats, some of us are ashore to talk with visitors about SSE’ s mission of exploration, research and education. There are about as many adults as children, but in terms of sheer energy, the youngsters are way ahead. Two destinations are drawing the biggest crowds—the touch-tank at the Sea Center, and the model of DeepWorker. Youngsters clamber in and out of the make-believe sub, laughing and dreaming about what it must be like to see the ocean from the inside out.
A diver splashed around under the wharf for a while, eventually surfacing with a few new contributions for the touch tank. In the interests of cleaning up the bay, he picked up a beer can, intending to appropriately dispose of it, but once on the surface, realized that what is trash to us was the shining residence of a now indignant octopus. The can’s “door” seemed improbably small for the lanky, eight-armed creature who emerged, glowering, but like many octopus species, this one managed to easily squish its flexible, compressible self in and out of the can with amazing grace. I make a habit of scooping bottles, cans, plastic cups, old fishing gear and other debris whenever I encounter it on beaches or underwater, but just this once, I was happy to see the octopus mansion and its grumpy occupant returned to the sea.
Among those at Stearns Wharf I was especially pleased to see were Tano Cabugos, his mother, and other Chumash friends who greeted members of SSE when we arrived in Santa Barbara last year. Tano and his family trace their ancestry to people who lived along the central coast of California 12,000 years ago. The Chumash culture and traditions have been shattered in the past two centuries, but the vision continues of living in harmony with the natural systems that have sustained them over the ages. This, too, is the vision that guides the Sustainable Seas Expeditions.
— Sylvia A. Earle
Project Director
Sustainable Seas Expeditions
[Note: nationalgeographic.com does not research or copyedit dispatches.]