In late September 2023 C.E., three sovereign tribal nations along California’s northern coast made history by establishing the first Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area (IMSA) in the United States. The Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, the Resighini Tribe of the Yurok People, and the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria joined together to take responsibility for nearly 700 square miles of ocean and coastline — without asking the state or federal government for permission.
At a glance
- Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area: The IMSA covers roughly 700 square miles of California’s northern coast, stretching from the California-Oregon border south to Little River near Trinidad — the first declaration of its kind in U.S. history.
- Tribal sovereignty: The three nations designated the IMSA under their own authority as sovereign peoples, not as a concession granted by the state — establishing a model for Indigenous-led conservation nationwide.
- Marine biodiversity: The protected zone includes kelp forests, rocky intertidal zones, estuaries, marshes, and key species such as salmon, abalone, surf smelt, sea stars, and marine mammals that are central to both ecology and tribal culture.
Why sovereignty matters here
“You are only as sovereign as you act,” said Robert Hemsted, vice chair of the Cher-Ae Heights Tribe, at a December 2023 C.E. celebration held on ancestral land. That framing is central to understanding what makes this IMSA different from a conventional marine protected area.
The tribes didn’t petition state agencies. They declared. Megan Rocha, executive director of the Resighini Rancheria Tribe, was direct: “Tribes are sovereign, and this is designated under tribal authority.” The distinction is not a technicality — it reflects a fundamentally different relationship between Indigenous nations and the land and sea they have managed for thousands of years.
California’s coast is typically governed by a patchwork of state agencies, including the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Coastal Commission. Some state officials have been supportive. Victor Bjelajac, district superintendent for California State Parks in the North Coast Redwoods district, told Mongabay: “When three sovereign nations claim a special territory for marine areas and traditional cultural practices in marine areas, I’m going to support that.”
Not all state agencies responded. California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Coastal Commission did not comment on whether they formally recognize the IMSA — a gap that could, in theory, be used to limit the tribes’ ability to act on their stewardship responsibilities.
Smelt, kelp, and the knowledge that comes from watching
For Jaytuk Steinruck, a Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation council member and lifelong fisherman, the stakes are personal and ecological. “There are songs and stories about our fish camps going back forever,” he said. “Smelt are an important food for our people.”
Surf smelt populations have crashed in recent decades, likely due to habitat disruption, development, and climate change. Rosa Laucci, a marine biologist and manager of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ marine program, describes them as a keystone species. “Smelt are a building block for larger coastal food webs,” she said. “If they collapse, then everything else does too.”
Steinruck describes watching schools of smelt approach the shore to spawn — signaled by diving pelicans and excited seagulls — only to be scared away by people or dogs on public beaches. One proposed response is straightforward: close sections of beach during spawning season, much as Hawaii protects nesting sea turtles. It’s practical, low-cost, and rooted in generations of ecological observation.
The broader IMSA will build on monitoring programs the Tolowa Dee-ni’ have already run for nearly a decade, tracking sea stars, seaweed, surf perch, and other species. The program needs more funding to expand — for conservation law enforcement, additional species monitoring, and offshore coverage. That resource gap is real.
A model built from global inspiration
The three California tribes drew on examples from Canada and Australia. In 2022 C.E., the Mamalilikulla First Nation declared part of its traditional territory on British Columbia’s Central Coast an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area without provincial or federal permission — and by February 2023 C.E., announced fisheries closures now supported by the Canadian government. In Australia, the Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area, declared in 2000 C.E. by Aboriginal Traditional Owners, covers more than 5,500 square kilometers of land and sea and is widely considered a conservation success.
“We want to show it’s possible right here in our own backyard,” said Laucci. “We hope this is the beginning of a movement,” Steinruck added.
The IMSA also carries weight within California’s own conservation agenda. Governor Gavin Newsom has set a goal of protecting 30% of the state’s lands and coastal waters by 2030 — a target known as 30×30. The IMSA alone represents 13% of that goal. California’s Ocean Protection Council has contributed pilot funding to the Tribal Marine Stewards Network, co-led by Rocha, which is building tribal natural resource programs across the state.
What was lost, and what could return
The creation of California’s existing marine protected areas under the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act was itself contentious — tribes said they weren’t meaningfully consulted about MPAs designated on their unceded lands. “There was no recognition of the unceded rights of tribes to continue to gather and be connected to these places,” Rocha told NPR. The IMSA is, in part, a direct answer to that history.
Sean Craig, a marine biology professor at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, described how a 2014 C.E. marine heat wave wiped out the sunflower stars that prey on sea urchins — sending urchin populations soaring and devastating kelp forests along the coast. “It’s an important move to work with the tribes to try and solve a problem, which is not of their making,” Craig said. “We’re living in their ancestral territory. They know better than anyone what this place has been like, what has been lost, and what it could be like again.”
Bjelajac put it plainly: when European settlers arrived, they found what looked like pristine wilderness — open prairies, towering redwoods, extraordinary abundance. “That was a managed environment,” he said. “That was all under Indigenous management.”
Jeri Lynn Thompson, chair of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, closed the December celebration with words that carried both weight and urgency: “Our tribes have a responsibility to steward, protect, and restore the ocean and coastal resources within our ancestral territories. We can no longer wait.”
Steinruck offered perhaps the simplest argument of all: “Let us be, and you will see.”
The California Natural Resources Agency’s Pathways to 30×30 document now lists the creation and implementation of IMSAs as an important strategy for biodiversity protection. Whether the state’s agencies move quickly enough to provide meaningful support — including sustained funding and formal recognition — remains the open question.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Mongabay
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Ghana establishes a new marine protected area at Cape Three Points
- Indigenous land rights: 160 million hectares recognized ahead of COP30
- The Good News for Humankind archive on marine conservation
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