This crew has Hero status in my book! What a wonderful service to provide. Smashing them under water to give back to the underwater environment is very smart. Hopefully others take notice and do the same
Has anyone in the diving community suggested "weekend urchin hammering get togethers"? It seems divers by the hundreds would show up to them at predetermined locations to restore urchin barrens up and down the coastline.?..
Humans can do a much better and faster job. The just need to increase the number of commercial licenses to allow the divers to harvest and SELL the urchins. Other Asian countries would love to have our sea urchin "problem."
This segment is so old now it does not differentiate between red urchins and purple urchins, which are much more invasive and destructive to the kelp forests. The purples have reproduced up and down the coast, decimating kelp as far as Washington, etc. Also, as mentioned below, smashing is not recommended: this may actually increase the spread of genetic materials. Physical removal is still the most effective method in spite of their overwhelming numbers.
If only we could get their numbers up. Monterrey Bay is one of the rare places they are being "restored" after being wiped out by hunters a century ago...
I agree. Bear in mind that this method, while obviously quite effective, is done exclusively through the efforts of human intervention. A healthy population of natural predators, such as starfish, can help restore balance. Unfortunately, starfish have been affected by 'Withering Foot Syndrome' for many years with no end in sight. They can almost be considered an endangered species. Absent the healthy natural balance of predator, prey, and a healthy, robust stand of macrocystis pyrifera, the only realistic way to mitigate urchin overpopulation is through human intervention for the indefinite future.
They can solve the problem in one month by increasing the number of commercial licenses for sea urchins. As long as it has uni, somebody will commercialize it due to the prices.
This crew has Hero status in my book! What a wonderful service to provide. Smashing them under water to give back to the underwater environment is very smart. Hopefully others take notice and do the same
Awesome work guys. We love our Kelp forests!
Great report. We got married at Terranea two years ago, it looked like there was a lot of kelp. Wish you could do this for Catalina too!
Has anyone in the diving community suggested "weekend urchin hammering get togethers"? It seems divers by the hundreds would show up to them at predetermined locations to restore urchin barrens up and down the coastline.?..
Perhaps we need to do the same for our northern coast too, especially with the collapse of the red abalone
A
Sea otters and male sheepheads can help greatly reduce the population of purple sea urchins.
Humans can do a much better and faster job. The just need to increase the number of commercial licenses to allow the divers to harvest and SELL the urchins. Other Asian countries would love to have our sea urchin "problem."
This segment is so old now it does not differentiate between red urchins and purple urchins, which are much more invasive and destructive to the kelp forests. The purples have reproduced up and down the coast, decimating kelp as far as Washington, etc. Also, as mentioned below, smashing is not recommended: this may actually increase the spread of genetic materials. Physical removal is still the most effective method in spite of their overwhelming numbers.
Better yet: otters. They work for free.
If only we could get their numbers up. Monterrey Bay is one of the rare places they are being "restored" after being wiped out by hunters a century ago...
I agree. Bear in mind that this method, while obviously quite effective, is done exclusively through the efforts of human intervention. A healthy population of natural predators, such as starfish, can help restore balance. Unfortunately, starfish have been affected by 'Withering Foot Syndrome' for many years with no end in sight. They can almost be considered an endangered species. Absent the healthy natural balance of predator, prey, and a healthy, robust stand of macrocystis pyrifera, the only realistic way to mitigate urchin overpopulation is through human intervention for the indefinite future.
They can solve the problem in one month by increasing the number of commercial licenses for sea urchins. As long as it has uni, somebody will commercialize it due to the prices.
Time to bring it back, must happen to restore the Native Kelps to bring these keystone ecosystems back together again!
You stated. that for every unit of urchin barren, fish stocks increase. How big is an urchin barren?
the urchins overpopulate and the kelp forest collapses. How long does it take for the urchin population to collapse after over-population?
It was so gross when you guys disected the sick urchans