The Channel Islands are located off the coast of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, California. The waters surrounding five of the eight islands comprise the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (the Sanctuary), one of Southern California’s few protected marine areas.

These islands include Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara. In 1980, the waters were declared a sanctuary by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) because of their national and global significance, distinctive resources and the fragile ecosystems which they support. The Sanctuary encompasses 1252 square nautical miles of marine environment, with its boundaries stretching from mean high tide to six nautical miles offshore around each island.

Superb diving
Surrounding kelp forests, colorful fish and clear waters make Anacapa Island an excellent dive destination. Santa Cruz Island, the largest in the Sanctuary, has an abundance of sea caves, rocky ledges and reef systems. In fact, the island is home to the largest and deepest known sea cave in the world. Its terrain is perhaps the most varied of the Channel Islands, ranging from steep mountain ranges to deep canyons, with a wide central valley in between. Good diving conditions can usually be found somewhere around this island regardless of weather conditions.Santa Rosa is the second largest island in the Sanctuary.

Here visitors will find rare plants, white sandy beaches, rocky terrain and vast grasslands in addition to great diving and hiking.San Miguel Island is located the farthest west from Ventura Harbor. The island is well-known for its cormorants, pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) and the large schools of rockfish that frequent these waters. Point Bennett features one of the most popular breeding grounds in Southern California for seals and sea lions, where up to 20,000 can be seen during the winter.

Wrecks all around
Although the marine life and kelp forest will offer you numerous great dives, don't gorget that the channel Island also offer some spectacular wreck diving. There are many shipwrecks that can be dove in the Santa Barbara Channel and around the islands. Some of these are; a Gruman airplane and the paddle wheeler Winfield Scott off Anacapa. On Santa Cruz there several wrecks and good dives are the minesweeper USS Peacock and another Grumman airplane. Moving on to Santa Rosa which offer the Aggi and Goldenhorn and at least but not least, the island of San Miguel has seen planty of ships meeting there wet demise. One of the better dives here is the wreck of Cuba at the west end.

For more info, there is a wide range of dive operations in the area you can google. In addition the NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries has also a lot of very good info and images for the wildlife on the islands.

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