Collapse of kelp forests imperils North Coast ocean ecosystem

global warming or El Nino ? pollution ? acidity of the ocean ? loss of habitat and the list goes on kind of like the plight of salmon in the state of California. big puzzle to put together and hopefully before we put it together we can fix it. if not our children and grandchildren will never get a chance to experience it.

Some good news... Dove for abalone at Sea Ranch on Thursday and there were 10 times the number of sea stars as last year.  As someone said on an earlier post, sea stars eat purple urchins which eats the kelp. Hopefully the cycle is coming back to balance.

That is good news. 

interesting how kulling urchins in an urchin barrow area makes an immediate change in the rooting and sprouting of new kelp. Spores are there to recolonize bare areas if urchins don't eat them before they can grow.... Hope yet for our coast

save the kelp, eat the uni!!!

Just wondering if the Kelp around the area is still a concern. Now that it's September the kelp around monterey is as prolific as ever. You can almost walk across it.

I just thought I would re hash an old topic to see how it was doing now.

Shelter Cove and Trinidad still have very minimal coverage.  The cape has a bit more, but nowhere near normal.

Seems like the main difference is you guys have sea otters down south and we don't.  Otters eat urchins.  Urchins eat kelp.

The south coast of Mendo is very light on kelp compared to past years. So is the Fort Bragg area.

I will send you some otters!! Glad to hear those little kelp pitbulls are good for something lol

Still next to none on the Sonoma Coast. 

Pablito shaved his back yesterday, and he is reporting a surge of small pink growths...