The Secret of Naples

California has lost 2/3 of its nearshore kelp ecosystems since 1958. Offshore Santa Barbara County, California the Naples Reef area includes over 19 square nautical miles of important kelp and rocky reef area. Naples Reef is one of the few reef wetlands of this type found along the southern California coast.

The threats posed by urban development along the Naples area in Santa Barbara will exacerbate the general plight of the significant kelp ecosystems. Federal and state agencies describe the rocky reef and associated kelp ecosystems of the Naples area as some of the most important marine areas along southern California. As of November 2005, several large mansions are proposed in the coastal bluff area of Naples, including a mansion that would exceed 13,000 square feet.

Naples is one of the two most thoroughly studied rocky reefs in southern California. Scientists have documented that the reef contains the highest diversity of intertidal organisms within the south coast. The benthic algae on Naples reef are considered one of the best examples of the region. The Santa Barbara County Comprehensive Plan Conservation Element recommends that Naples Reef be preserved as a scientific research and educational area because of its unusual biological character.

The Naples marine area exists in the larger ecological context of the Gaviota Coast. The Gaviota coast is the last undeveloped coastal area in southern California. The Gaviota Coast has been through many changes - Chumash village, rancho, lemon and avocado orchard, oil development, urban and suburban development, and tourist destination. But it has remained a rich coastal area of wilderness and an essential ecological core area to the coastal ecosystems of southern California. Some of the Gaviota coast’s more significant aspects are:

· The Gaviota Coast is considered one of the top 15 hot spots for biodiversity in the world. More than 1,400 plant and animal species depend on the Gaviota, including 60 species of fish and 195 species of birds. However, that biodiversity is threatened. The area contains 24 federally- or state-listed threatened or endangered plant and animal species and another 60 species of rare and special concern (including proposed endangered, threatened, candidate, and sensitive).1

· It is the only place in the nation that features an ecological transition zone between northern and southern Mediterranean plant communities. Many northern plant species reach their southern geographic limits north of the Santa Ynez Mountains, and many southern species reach their geographic limits south of the mountains.

· Gaviota also borders a biologically diverse marine transition zone attributed to the confluence of two major oceanic currents and the shape of the continental shelf at Point Conception. Its marine and terrestrial ecosystems work together in a large-scale system of relationships where biophysical processes of land, water and wind form unique species and habitats of the Southern California Bight.3

· It is uniquely connected to the northern Channel Islands. This region’s animals and plants depend on ecological relationships among mountains (the Santa Ynez, San Rafael and Sierra Madre Ranges), the Santa Ynez River, urban and rural areas, vernal pools and coastal wetlands, and the marine environment - including the Santa Barbara Channel and the Channel Islands.4

· Gaviota contains 34 watersheds, each a symbol of the link between the activities of human beings and the general health of the coast and marine environment.5 The last remaining wild southern steelhead can be found within the creeks and watersheds of the Gaviota area.

For further information on what you can do to protect the Gaviota coast in Santa Barbara County, California:

1 Gaviota Coast Feasibility Study, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, March 5, 2004. http://www.nps.gov/pwro/gaviota/

2 Wayne Ferren and Kathy Rindlaub, Museum of Systematics and Ecology, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara

3 Michael McGinnis, A Recommended Study Area for the CINMS Management Planning Process: Ecological Linkages in the Marine Ecology from Point Sal to Point Mugu, including the Marine Sanctuary. US Department of Commerce. NOAA. http://www.cinms.nos.noaa.gov/manplan/pdf/McGinnis.pdf

4 Michael McGinnis, op cit., http://www.cinms.nos.noaa.gov/manplan/pdf/McGinnis.pdf

5 Gaviota Coast Feasibility Study,