The Rookery

The Rookery is a shallow sand-and-rock area on the southeast corner of Santa Barbara Island, the smallest and most isolated of the five Channel Islands National Park islands. The site is one of the largest California sea lion breeding colonies in the state, and the underwater encounter with the animals is the whole point of the dive. Pups are common in the shallow water around divers, juveniles move along the edges of the kelp, and adult males haul out on the rocks above the water. Depths run from ten feet at the shallowest rock piles to forty in the sand channels.

Santa Barbara Island sits thirty-eight miles off the mainland coast, the most remote of the park's islands, and the crossing keeps charter traffic light enough that the rookery site has a consistent visibility advantage over the more accessible islands. Visibility runs forty feet near the rookery itself and over a hundred on the exposed back side of the island, where clearer offshore water meets the kelp line. The trade-off is exposure: the island is small, with little landmass to block swell or wind, and conditions change fast.

The bare boulders and the structure on the rubbly sand bottom make The Rookery a rocky reef biome, with the cracks and depressions that shelter lobster and small fish. Giant kelp anchored on the larger rocks at the edges of the rookery, growing up through the water column to the surface, layers a kelp forest biome over that reef. The shallow surge channels along the rocky shore, where the small surf inside the cove washes the rocks, add a surf zone biome.

Access is boat only. Charter dive boats run to Santa Barbara Island from San Pedro and Long Beach in the south and from Ventura in the north, with the crossing typically three to four hours under power. Day trips are uncommon because of the distance, and most divers visit on multi-day trips that include other southern Channel Islands sites. Conditions around the island are intermediate to advanced because of the surge and current that build through the day, even when the morning is calm.

Fishing and spearfishing are not legal here. The Santa Barbara Island State Marine Reserve covers the southeastern side of the island, including the Rookery itself. All take inside the reserve has been prohibited since the 2003 designation. The reserve does not cover the entire island, and the western and northern sides at sites such as Sutil Island and Arch Point sit outside the reserve under standard recreational rules. The boundary should be chartplotted before any harvest near the edges of the reserve.