Coastal Management Fall 2017
2017 Coastal Opinions
Specific Locations-Channel Islands
By Alyse B., Kevin M., and Matthew A.
The Channel Island MPA’s are a network of eleven no take marine reserves and two marine conservation areas with the longest span of protection in California as well as the state’s largest amount of deepwater data collecte. Map: NOAA, 2009.
Introduction
There are eight Channel Islands off the coast of California, ranging from 2.6 to 250 km2 (Rick et al. 2014); Santa Cruz (249 km2), Santa Rosa (218 km2), Santa Catalina (194 km2), San Clemente (145 km2), San Nicolas (57 km2), San Miguel (36 km2), Anacapa (3 km2) and Santa Barbara (2.6 km2) (Galipeau 2017). Ownership and management responsibilities of these islands fall to various entities. Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara are managed by the US National Park Service; Santa Cruz is partially owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy; San Clemente and San Nicolas are managed by the US Navy; and Santa Catalina has three private landowners, in which 88% of the islands is managed by the Catalina Island Conservancy (Rick et al. 2014). These islands are homes to endemic species, like to Island Loggerhead Shrike, Lanius ludovicianus (Eggert et. al 2004), and contain beautiful geological features that everyone should have the chance to experience, such as scenic beaches, hiking trails, and amazing rock formations. Not only are these aesthetically pleasing locales, they are also great placed to conduct research and contain many environmental conservation efforts.
Santa Rosa is the second biggest island, spanning 53,000 acres, with the highest point of 484m. (NPS 2016). Before becoming a national park, Santa Rosa Island was home to first the Chumash.. Now, the island is used for recreation purposes and home to a research station that focuses on restoration efforts. The island with the greatest human population, Santa Catalina, is also home to the island fox (Urocyon littoralis) and marine organisms like the octopus (Octopus bimaculatus) (Hofmeister and Voss 2017, Kohlmann et al. 2005). Anacapa, is a series of 3 islets; East, Middle and West with only the East, and one spot on the West Anacapa (Frenchy’s Cove), open to the public (Channel Islands Restoration). Santa Barbara Island is the smallest of the island only ranging one square mile (NPS 2016). Although destroyed by the ranching period, its recovery efforts have come a long way. With removal of non native species, the native species have been bouncing back. In addition, now 14 species of shore birds nest annually on Santa Barbara Island (National Park). Santa Cruz is the largest of the 8 Channel Islands as well as the largest island off the coast of California. It is host to several endemic species including the Santa Cruz Island Horse, Island Scrub Jay, and a subspecies of the Island Fox. It’s storied history has included being a home to the ancient Chumash over 10,000 years ago, being given away in a Spanish land grant, used for fishing, smuggling, and the same destructive ranching which ravaged most of the island’s biological communities. Currently, Santa Cruz is part of the National Parks system and is visited regularly by many locals and tourists. The NPS maintains several airstrips on the island and looks over the Nature Conservancy preserve there as well (NPS 2016).
Navy owned and operated Channel Islands include San Clemente, San Nicolas and San Miguel. San Clemente Island is 113km west of San Diego and just south of Catalina island. The island became part of the U.S Navy training grounds in 1934 (Bittner). The island is closed to the public, but has been making conscious efforts trying to help restore black abalone health (Franklin 2014). San Nicolas is currently used as a naval weapons testing and training facility, and in the past years it served as a launch site for military research rockets (2016). It’s the most remote of the islands, inhabited by military personnel, and when help is needed, contractor are brought out through Channel Islands Restoration (Diaz 2017). San Miguel, 6th largest of the eight Channel Islands, played host to the Chumash and their ancestors for thousands of years. It contained its own thriving, rich maritime culture involved in trade with the other Channel Islands and mainland tribes. Portuguese explorer, João Rodrigues Cabrillo, made landfall on the island in 1542 naming it “La Posesion” for the Spanish Empire. Over the next few hundred years the island witnessed the loss of the last of its native Chumash, use as a Chinese fishing hub, and a concentrated ranching effort which has done untold damage to the islands native fauna and flora. Currently, almost all of the island has been designated an archeological district for features such as its “Caliche Forest” where ancient vegetation has been cast in sand. While the Navy has used the island as a bombing range, limited visitation is allowed on the island.
Overview of Current Situation
In the 1900’s these islands became a focus for protection. On April 26, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation designating Anacapa and Santa Barbara Islands as National Monuments (2016). Following, in 1980, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and San Miguel also became part of the National Park (2016). Researchers find these islands as ideal placed to conduct research and restoration efforts. One example is the Marine Applied Research and Exploration (MARE) team. This team is leading efforts in conducting fish counts during a 3-week journey, in which the crew head out to San Miguel Island and back to Anacapa (NOAA 2009). The crew uses “remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to compare against extensive baseline data from 2003-2009 and evaluate the outcomes of long term MPA protection (NOAA 2009).”
The ability to experience these unique islands depend on many factors; weather conditions, travelers resident local compared to the departure location, health conditions, potential boat maintenance, and/or lack of personnel transportation. We focused on another variable, annual income, and weather it has a significant impact on island visitation frequency. We used data collected through public opinion poll surveys (total of 1,487 surveys were conducted) to test the hypothesis that island visitation frequency, significantly depends on annual income.
Questions
Three questions of the Public Opinion Poll Survey related to the California Channel Islands;
(1) How often do you visit the California’s Channel Islands?
Possible responses: daily, weekly, monthly, few times a year, once a year, or < once a year.
(2) Have you ever visited any of these Channel Islands (check all that apply)?
Possible responses: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Catalina, San Clemente, San Nicolas, San Miguel, Anacapa and Santa Barbara.
(3) What is your annual income?
Possible responses: < $30,000; $30-60,000; $60-90,000; $90-120,000; $120-150,000; and greater than $150,000.
Results
Responses to these question can be seen in the next three bar graphs.
With a sample size of 1,006 responses, Catalina was the most visited with a little over 50% of the respondents indicating they’ve been, compared to San Nicolas, where only 6% indicated visitation. The second most visited island is Santa Cruz (47%), followed by Anacapa (39%). Error bars represent + 28% error.
With a sample size of 1,254 responses, the most common annual incomes were 30 to 60 thousand (24%), followed by 60 to 90 thousand (23%). 19% indicate an annual income of less than 30,000, 16% 120-150 thousand, 11% 120-150 thousand and 9% earn greater than 150 thousand annually. Error bars represent +16% error.
With a sample size of 1,382 survey responses, about 1% visit the Channel Islands daily; 4% go weekly; 5% visit on a monthly basis; 13% visit a few times per year; 13% visit once a year; and the majority of our sample, 66%, visit less than once a year. Error bars represent +17% error.
Interpretation
Does Channel Island visitation frequency significantly depend on annual income?
The proportion of respondents in each income bracket who visited the islands are as follows: <$30K/year: 67.9%
$30-60k/year: 70.3%
$60-90k/year: 68%
$90-120k/year: 67.5%
$120-150k/year: 72.9%
>$150k/year: 70.3%
Average: 69.5%
Using the proportion of visitors from each income bracket, we were able to perform a chi-squared test against the mean proportion of all of our samples. This resulted in a chi-squared value of 3.103 which sits well below the critical value for o = 0.05 (11.07) for our sample with 5 degrees of freedom. We determined the result to not be statistically significant. This means the proportion of visitors to non visitors in each income bracket was not significantly different from the average proportion of visitations for all income brackets. Given that our proportions of visitation were not significantly different from one another, we fail to reject our null hypothesis that income has no correlation to likelihood of island visitation. Instead, during our analysis of the data we saw that as income rose, islands were visited more evenly, as opposed to the lowest income bracket which showed strong visitation at Santa Cruz and Catalina islands only. But there was no significance to this observation. Another, more likely, observation we made was that distance from the mainland (e.g. travel time) seemed to be a significant factor in determining which islands were visited. Those closest to the mainland had the highest rates of visitation, as seen in the map below:
However, there are many more variable to consider here including the fact that most facilities are located on particular islands, and some are almost totally closed off to public visitation. In summary, income does not appear to affect the likelihood of visiting the Channel Islands. All income groups visited the islands in nearly equal proportions.
Key Takeaway
After working through the data collected, we believed that there may have been a greater likelihood of visiting the Channel Islands by those who had a higher annual income. With our results, however, we discovered that residents visited the islands in the same proportions no matter their personal wealth. This would appear to suggest that our Channel Islands are a valued part of our culture here in Southern California, such that the interest in them transcends more typically divisive socio-economic lines. This is welcome news considering the conservation efforts on the island and the hopes for better island education. Interest in the islands and willingness to visit are a shared trait and we hope will continue to be so.
References
Bittner, T. Area Control and Surveillance Facility, San Diego. FACSFAC Technical Support Division U.S
Chanel Islands Restoration. The Channel Islands of California. Channel Islands Restoration.
Diaz, N. 2017. Volunteer Coordinator.in A. Bader, editor.
Eggert, L. S., N. I. Mundy, and D. S. Woodruff. 2004. Population Structure of Loggerhead Shrikes in the California Channel Islands. Molecular Ecology 13:2121-2133.
Franklin, B. 2014. Conservation Efforts A Lifeline to The Endangered White Abalone.
Galipeau, R. 2017. Welcome from the Superintendent. National Park Service.
Hofmeister, J. K. K., and K. M. Voss. 2017. Activity space and movement patterns of Octopus bimaculatus (Verrill, 1883) around Santa Catalina Island, California. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 486:344-351.
Kohlmann, S. G., G. A. Schmidt, and D. K. Garcelon. 2005. A population viability analysis for the Island Fox on Santa Catalina Island, California. Ecological Modelling 183:77-94.
NOAA. 2009. Channel Islands Return: Documenting Effectiveness of California First Marine Protected Area. The Baum Foundation.
NPS. Establishing Channel Islands National Park. NPS.
NPS. 2016. Santa Barbara Island. NPS.
NPS. 2016. Santa Rosa Island. NPS.
NPS. 2016. Santa Catalina Island. NPS.
NPS. 2016. San Nicolas Island. NPS.
NPS. 2016. Santa Cruz Island. NPS
NPS. 2016. San Miguel Island. NPS.
Rick, T. C., T. S. Sillett, C. K. Ghalambor, C. A. Hofman, K. Ralls, R. S. Anderson, C. L. Boser, T. J. Braje, D. R. Cayan, R. T. Chesser, P. W. Collins, J. M. Erlandson, K. R. Faulkner, R. Fleischer, W. C. Funk, R. Galipeau, A. Huston, J. King, L. Laughrin, J. Maldonado, K. McEachern, D. R. Muhs, S. D. Newsome, L. Reeder-Myers, C. Still, and S. A. Morrison. 2014. Ecological Change on California’s Channel Islands from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene. BioScience 64:680-692.
