Channel Islands—The Harbor was full of activity on Sunday, April 19, as the Celebration of the Whales had snacks, chalk art, lots of education about our Harbor, and Slides and Bouncy Houses for the kids.
AUSTIN MacRae, with the Channel Islands Naturalist Corps, started volunteering in 2015 and has volunteered for 12 years. “We are interpretive guides to the Channel,” he said. “We work with Channel Islands National Park and the Marine Sanctuary. These are two government agencies. The park is serviced by the Department of the Interior, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and that’s the Department of Commerce, they handle the Marine Sanctuary.”
He said they do Whale Watching trips from Santa Barbara as well as Island Hikes on the Islands.
“We talk about the flora on each Island, and the history on the Island,” he said. “The Island is an amazing place.”
He said the Santa Barbara Channel is unique.
“We have cold and warm water that co-mix here,” he said. “Most places have either one or the other; we have both, and warm and cold-water animals exist in our Channel.”
In Santa Barbara, he said, they have an East and West running coastline.
“We started…
