Chumash Organization Seeks Special Status for Waters Off Nicholas

• Only Recreational Fishing Would Be Allowed within a One-Mile Radius from the Shore

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

For thousands of years, the Chumash were the stewards of the Malibu area’s coastal resources. Some of their descendants, in a proposal to the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, are asking to resume stewardship, at least along a small portion of the local coast.
The Wishtoyo Foundation’s proposal is for a Chumash co-managed State Marine Conservation Area to be located in the waters off of Nicholas Canyon Beach. Called the Sequit Marine Protected Area to reflect the name of the original 1802 Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit Spanish land grant, the proposed MPA would encompass roughly one and half square miles of ocean, and approximately two miles of shore.
“This stand alone MPA proposal is intended to set forth and introduce parameters for a co-beneficial partnership between the Chumash people, all MLPA stakeholders, and the California Department of Fish and Game, that best protects and preserves the ecological integrity of our coastal waters and the culture of the Chumash people, ” the proposal to the MLPA Initiative blue ribbon task force states.
“Without protecting the ecological integrity of our marine ecosystems, the culture and well-being of the Chumash people, and of all people in this local and global community to which we all belong, will continue to be severely threatened and will suffer greatly,” the proposal continues.
Wishtoyo executive director Mati Waiya is quick to point out that the Sequit MPA proposal is not intended to replace a State Marine Reserve at Point Dume, but to compliment it. Waiya told the Malibu Surfside News that it is vital that the final South Coast region MLPA plan incorporate the waters from Latigo to Point Dume.
“People forget,” Waiya said. “Point Dume is a sacred point for the Chumash. A shrine area. Point Conception is the westernmost boundary, with Point Dume at the other end.”
“If we’re going to establish MPAs, we need to support what they truly stand for,” Waiya said, advocating for the highest level of protection at Point Dume. However, the MPA he is proposing for the Nicholas Canyon area would be closed only to commercial fishers. Unlike other SMCAs, sustainable species in the Sequit MPA would remain available to recreational fishers, including spear and surf fishers, provided that traditional methods of fishing are used.
Waiya says he would like to see Chumash fishing techniques revived, such as abalone fishing hooks, and the ingenious traps made from native plant materials that were used to trap fish and spiny lobster.
“I would like to see us teaching that to some of our children,” he said, describing how such a program could be integrated into Wishtoyo’s Nicholas Canyon Chumash Discovery Village education program, which he says, offers a hands-on introduction to Chumash traditions and culture to thousands of school children throughout Southern California.
“It’s an opportunity for them to become empowered,” Waiya says. “It’s a window of opportunity for stewardship.”
It’s also an opportunity for the Chumash people to continue to “maintain and revitalize” their culture, Waiya adds. A culture that came extremely close to extinction in the 20th century. “This is our children’s future,” Waiya says. “To deny it from them would be unjust.”
Waiya dreams of one day using tomols, the wooden boats of the Chumash, to help maintain the proposed Sequit preserve. He calls it “eyes on the water,” and hopes that area residents, kayakers, surfers, swimmers and beachgoers could also participate, keeping an eye on resources and reporting concerns or changes to the DFG, which will be overseeing the entire network of MPAs once the MLPA Initiative process is complete.
The proposal to close the area to commercial fishing interests may not go over well with lobster and squid fishers that frequent the area, but the Sequit MPA would only extend one mile into the ocean instead of the full three miles out to the state boundary.
Recreational fishers have expressed relief that the proposal would leave the area open. The kelp beds off of Nicholas Canyon Beach are popular with kayakers. Surf fishers are a frequent sight along the wide sandy cove. Divers say the area is not for beginners, the south swell that makes the beach famous as a surf break can be a serious hazard for divers, but the waters offer experienced divers an unspoiled submarine landscape of reefs and towering forests of kelp.
“It’s a tough swim out to the best diving,” one diver told The News, “but it’s worth it. “I’ve seen bat rays out there, angel sharks, octopus, massive squid.”
Locals say that even the elusive sea otter, rarely seen this far south, is occasionally spotted in the kelp beds, fueling the hope that one day the long-endangered marine mammal will make a comeback in local waters.
Waiya hopes that, with enough protection, many endangered and declining species will have the potential to make a comeback to the waters traditionally fished by the Chumash.
The Sequit MPA would also protect another endangered resource—submerged cultural artifacts from millennia—according to some archeologists, as much as 8000 years—of Chumash habitation in the Nicholas Canyon area.
“It is our responsibility to protect the land, water, and oceans we exist upon for the common good and to sustain our well-being, co-existence, and harmony with the world and the many diverse surrounding communities that we depend on,” the Wishtoyo proposal concludes.