A proposal to create a new tribally co-managed marine protected area off of Morro Bay could change where commercial and recreational fishermen can cast their lines while giving the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians a role in managing a stretch of Central Coast waters.
But before state regulators decide the proposal’s fate, Morro Bay City Council and members of the Salinan Tribe of San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties are asking for a greater voice in the conversation.
Morro Bay Mayor Carla Wixom told New Times the city learned about the proposal through members of the commercial fishing industry roughly six to eight months ago after missing earlier notifications.
“There was some notification that had gone out over the past year or two,” said Wixom. “Somehow we didn’t get some of those notifications.”
Members of the Salinan Tribe, whose families have lived and fished around Morro Bay for generations, said they also want their knowledge of the coastline represented as the state considers new protections.
“We’re asking politely that you remember that we have a lot of knowledge,” Salinan Elders Council member Bonnie Pierce told New Times. “Why aren’t we at the table?”
At issue is the proposed Chitqawi State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) submitted by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in 2023 as part of California’s first 10-year review of its statewide network of marine protected areas (MPA).
The proposed conservation area would cover an approximately 8.5-square-mile stretch of coastline, from Morro Rock to Dog Beach near Cayucos and extending through waters off the coast. Under the current proposal, fishing would generally be prohibited except for members of the Santa Ynez Band under a tribal exemption.
The Santa Ynez Band’s petition describes Chitqawi as a way to expand marine protections while strengthening tribal involvement in managing, monitoring, and educating the public about ocean resources.
The rationale for the MPA is “to ensure 30 percent of state waters are fully protected by 2030 and to foster tribal engagement and co-management of MPAs,” the Santa Ynez Band’s petition to the California Fish and Game Commission states.
The petition explains that California’s original MPA planning process did not adequately incorporate tribes or traditional ecological knowledge and points to warming ocean temperatures, climate change, and other human-caused pressures as reasons to expand protections.
The Santa Ynez Band already co-manages four State Marine Conservation Areas in Southern California. Chitqawi would bring that model to the coast of Morro Bay, where the no tribally co-managed marine protection area currently exists.
The proposed MPA takes its name from the northernmost coastal Chumash village site.
Salinan council member and enrollment secretary Yvonne Davis raised concerns about the proposal in an Aug. 10 letter to the Morro Bay City Council, describing her family’s own long-standing connection to the waters around Morro Bay.
Davis wrote that her grandfathers and other tribal relatives were commercial fishermen out of Morro Bay and that Salinan tribal members continue to recreationally fish there.
“We Salinans call Morro Rock ‘Lesa’mo,’” Davis wrote. “Our history, rights, and sacred ceremonies here must be protected.”
Pierce, who grew up in Morro Bay, told New Times that she wants Salinan traditional knowledge included in conversations about conservation and harvesting, and she emphasized that she doesn’t view the issue as a competition between Indigenous communities.
“We’re asking to sit at the table because the federal [were] the only ones that were contacted,” she said.
Government agencies often give formal consultation and co-management roles to federally recognized tribes, which have a government-to-government relationship with the U.S. The Salinan Tribe of San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties is not federally recognized.
The city of Morro Bay is raising its own concerns about the proposed restrictions and how the city was included in the process.
On Aug. 11, the City Council authorized Wixom to send a letter asking the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and California Fish and Game Commission to deny the Chitqawi MPA proposal.
The city’s opposition came after the California Ocean Protection Council recommended denying the proposal, citing its location immediately adjacent to Morro Bay Harbor and the potential challenges that could create for the regional port.
“The proposal would not just limit fishing off of Morro Bay … for commercial fishing, but also recreational and sport fishing,” Wixom told New Times. “It’s anybody who would want to go fishing—the industry, the sport boats, and just residents and visitors alike.”
Morro Bay’s commercial fishing fleet targets Dungeness crab, rock crab, sablefish, rockfish, salmon, and other species, while the harbor supports fish processing, charter boats, recreational fishing, and marine tourism.
According to the city, Morro Bay received no advance notice of the state’s July evaluations or August hearings and wasn’t included in outreach or consultation related to the petitions.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife acknowledged that it “did not have the ability to provide a supplemental analysis of the economic or fiscal impacts” of the petitions.
Wixom said fishermen have their own incentive to protect the resources they depend on.
“They make their living there, so they’re going to do whatever they need to do to make sure that the protections that are in place are adhered to so that there’s a harvest for them for years to come,” she said.
The city supports an alternative that Wixom said would keep the area open to fishing while adding protections for cultural resources.
Pierce similarly described harvesting and conservation as connected rather than competing goals.
“I’m looking at it and as an elder saying, restricted or not, this has to happen at some point. How much is enough that we take before we say, can we all give up a little bit?” she said.
As of Aug. 31, Wixom said Morro Bay hasn’t received a response to its Aug. 11 letter.
The California Fish and Game Commission is scheduled to meet Oct. 13 through 16 as the state continues its review of the MPA petitions. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Chloë Hodge at chodge@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Sept 3-10, 2026.
