Home | Santa Barbara

1. Port-at-a-Glance

Santa Barbara is a port on the southern California coast in the Santa Barbara Channel region adjacent to the Channel Islands. Santa Barbara has been an important area for the Chumash peoples for thousands of years and for commercial and recreational use since the mid 19th century. In the 1780s, missionaries settled the Mission and El Presidio in Santa Barbara. The community was incorporated in 1850 as a US city. Santa Barbara Harbor was built in 1929 and soon became home to the US Navy

Fishing has remained one of Santa Barbara’s most important sectors both economically and culturally since the middle of the 20th century, although the fisheries on which it has been most dependent have shifted over time. Currently, important fisheries for the port include California spiny lobster, groundfish, red sea urchin, and rock crab. Groundfish was once an important year-round fishery for the West Coast, however, the West Coast-wide fishery was declared a federal fishery disaster in 2000 following a sharp decline in landings of rockfish species and overcapitalization in the fishery (Source).

In Santa Barbara, the fishery has grown since the 2000s as landings shifted to sablefish and thornyheads. The red sea urchin is also an important fishery, however, the fishery declined after the loss of the Japanese export market in 2000. The California spiny lobster and rock crab fisheries have grown in value and landings at the port since the mid-2000s. From 1999 to 2021, the number of fish business licenses active in Santa Barbara fluctuated, but ultimately increased slightly. Fish business licenses declined in the mid-2000s but then increased in the 2010s, surpassing to 1999 numbers (49) in 2021 (55). The number of commercial fishing licenses associated with the port has decreased from 291 in 1999 to 232 in 2021. Fishing licenses followed a similar trajectory of decline in the mid-2000s and then a steady increase from 2006 onwards. Currently, California spiny lobster is the port’s primary fishery by ex-vessel value and red sea urchin is the port’s primary fishery by weight. In 2021, landings at Santa Barbara Harbor accounted for 1% of California’s total landings.