Santa Barbara Channel

Prior to the Holocene era sea levels were considerably lower, such that the water width separating the islands from the mainland was much less, making biological colonization as well as human transport across the channel easier.

In recent times the Native American Chumash peoples navigated these waters with ease in small watercraft, allowing communication and trade between island and mainland villages.

C. Michael Hogan reviews some of the theories of colonization of the rare species Torrey Pine, Pinus torreyana to the islands, suggesting that it is likely that Chumash peoples carried the initial cones in their Tomols.

[2] The pygmy mammoth, an extinct, endemic species, were capable swimmers able to cross the channel and adapt to the island environment by insular dwarfism.

[3] About 100 collisions have been documented off of the coast of California since 1982, which includes a rate of about 6 per year today, possibly more due to the difficulty of observing the incidents.