A new project is underway to restore #kelp #forests in the #Santa #Barbara #Channel -- by removing sea urchins and selling them to restaurants or turning them into agricultural products.
“It’s really been decades in the making,” said Kim Selkoe, executive director of Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara,
co-founder of Get Hooked Seafood, and research scientist at UCSB.
“It’s really been the commercial sea urchin diving community that has noticed so much kelp decline out of the Channel Islands.”
Selkoe said that there used to be a vibrant kelp forest on the backside of San Miguel Island,
but starting in the 1980s warmer waters from El Niño storms caused the kelp to die off.
Purple urchins then started taking over and feeding on the remaining kelp.
“We’ve gone from like this rich three-dimensional forest filled with fish and snails and invertebrates and other algae, down to this carpeted urchin where nothing can grow;
and as soon as the little spores land and start to try to grow again, they just mow them down,” Selkoe said.
However, when urchins are removed, kelp is able to grow back fairly easily, according to Selkoe
https://www.noozhawk.com/kelp-restoration-project-to-begin-in-santa-barbara-this-spring/