Page 124 - California Diving and Surfing

here are large schools of rockfish, huge sun- T he cold and nutrient-rich water sur-
Tflower stars, a colorful array of anemones,
scallops, and a general abundance of inverte-
brates. In good weather, usually during autumn,
diving is great, with spectacular clarity. Spanish
explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo died here in
1543.
San Miguel Island is the westernmost of
California’s Channel Islands, located across
the Santa Barbara Channel in the Pacific Ocean,
within Santa Barbara County, California. San
Miguel is the sixth-largest of the eight Channel
Islands at 9,325 acres (37.74 km² or 14.57 sq mi),
including offshore islands and rocks. Prince Is-
land, 700 m (2,300 ft) off the northeastern coast,
measures 35 acres (14 ha) in area. The island, at
its farthest extent, is 8 miles (13 km) long and 3.7 daunt the Chumash people. They called the
miles (6.0 km) wide. San Miguel Island is part of
Channel Islands National Park, and almost all of
the island (8,960 acres (36.3 km2)) has also been
designated as an archaeological district on the
National Register of Historic Places. This west-
ernmost Channel Island receives northwesterly
winds and severe weather from the open ocean.
to land was the Portuguese explorer, João
rounding the island is home to a
diverse array of sea life that is not found on island and is buried there. Ranchers raised
the southern islands. The island is uninhab-
ited with its highest peak being San Miguel
Hill, at 831 feet (253 m). Submerged rocks
make the nearly 28-mile (45 km) coastline a
mariner’s nightmare.
A rchaeological research has shown that
San Miguel Island was first settled by
humans at least 12,000 years ago, in the
Millingstone Horizon archaeological period.
Because the northern Channel Islands have
not been connected to the adjacent main-
land in recent geological history, the Paleo-
Indians who first settled the island clearly
had boats and other maritime technolo-
gies. Rough seas and risky landings did not
island Tuquan in the Chumash language,
and for several centuries, they used plank-
built canoes, called tomols, to reach their
settlements. The first European explorer
Rodrigues Cabrillo in 1542, who died on the
sheep here from 1850 to 1948. One of the
ranch families that homesteaded the long-
est was the Lesters, a family of four that left
the island at the time of Pearl Harbor. Later,
the United States Navy used the island for a
bombing range.
T he National Park Service maintains
two airstrips, a ranger station and a
research station on San Miguel Island. The
Island is normally staffed by a ranger who
enforces park laws, while also providing
interpretive services for public visitors. The
island also hosts scientists who study pin-
nipeds and manage the Island Fox captive
breeding program that is conducted on
the island. Volunteer interpretive rangers
often fill in for regularly paid rangers due to
budget deficits within the park.