Sharing the Channel offers both modern and historical insight into the importance of the Santa Barbara Channel and Northern Channel Islands to human habitation of the area. “In making the documentary, I’ve found that the opposing perspectives of small scale commercial fishermen and the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary are particularly poignant,” said Janet Bridgers, producer, writer and editor of the documentary. “We may be seeing the last generation of small scale fishing in the Channel, a tradition that goes back to the early Chumash,” she said.
This is the third Earth Alert documentary dealing with issues relevant to the Santa Barbara Channel and coastline. The first was Sand Sun Oil + Gas about offshore oil and gas development in the Channel area and the second was Ormond Wetland Wonderland, about Ormond Beach, a coastal wetland in Oxnard that’s been called the most important wetland on the central coast.
“We have such a beautiful coast, with historically abundant resources, and many different commercial interests and anything that helps all of us to understand its challenges, while we enjoy its beauty, is essential,” Bridgers said.
The documentary was funded in part by a grant from the California Council for the Humanities as part of the Council’s statewide California Stories initiative. The Council is an independent nonprofit organization and a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information on the Council and the California Stories initiative, visit www.californiastories.org.
Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the documentary do not necessarily represent those of the California Council for the Humanities.
Videos produced by Earth Alert:
Heroes of the Coast — the Documentary
Sand Sun Oil + Gas
Ormond Wetland Wonderland
Sharing the Santa Barbara Channel
Stories of the Spill
