Shipping Exhaust Pollution: An Ecological and Health Crisis in the Santa Barbara Channel

With approximately 5,000 ships traveling through the Santa Barbara Channel to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach each year, tailpipe emissions from shipping account for half of Santa Barbara County’s ozone pollution, impacting local air quality and human health, while carcasses of whales washed ashore as a result of collision-related deaths are frequently found in the area.