What's Going On?

[JohnMckroidJr]

Warmer water increases phytoplankton blooms. The phytoplankton blooms reduce the ocean oxygen levels and increase bacteria. The depleted ocean oxygen levels are literally drowning the Starfish and the increased bacteria is causing disease. The phenomenon has been called Sea Star Wasting disease. No Starfish predators to eat the Sea Urchins has allowed the Urchins to eat the kelp unchecked. On top of this Sea Urchins are one of the few organisms that thrive off the Sludge we dump into the ocean -- further increasing their numbers. It's a snowball effect that just moves up the food chain.

We have the same thing happening to the cold water kelp forests that stretch from the East Coast to Europe, as well as increased die-off of coral reefs in warmer climates from other pollution imbalance issues.

[FISH11]

If the problem was related to an increase in the sea Urchins, than I would expect an increase in Sea Urchin divers. There used to be Sea Urchin dive boat like the the Crab and Lobster boats that regularly are at LJ. The fact is I haven't seen the Urchin dive boats in a couple of years. I know some have moved to the Pacific Northwest.

[kayakfisherman]

Dittos Mark. I used to see urchin divers all the time. But not anymore.

John, I'm looking for LJ specifics. Answers from the many science
minded locals, especially those tied to Scripps; and from those who
have fished LJ for at least the past 10 years and beyond.

[Mski]

The urchin divers are gone because the sea urchins have depleted the kelp so much that they are now starving. As a result, they contain little to no uni (urchin roe) and are no longer a marketable food source. Unfortunately they don’t just die of starvation but can linger for years eating any new kelp that grows and creating urchin barrens. There is some hope in a fairly new start up company called Urchinomics based in Norway. They collect the starving urchins, feed them in shore-based aquaculture farms to fatten them up and then sell the uni. It would be nice to see that take off here in SoCal someday.

[lowprofile]

Originally Posted by Mski

The urchin divers are gone because the sea urchins have depleted the kelp so much that they are now starving. As a result, they contain little to no uni (urchin roe) and are no longer a marketable food source. Unfortunately they don’t just die of starvation but can linger for years eating any new kelp that grows and creating urchin barrens. There is some hope in a fairly new start up company called Urchinomics based in Norway. They collect the starving urchins, feed them in shore-based aquaculture farms to fatten them up and then sell the uni. It would be nice to see that take off here in SoCal someday.

So you’re saying that these urchins aren’t reproductive but still linger and if we just remove them, or most of them, there’s a chance the kelp could grow back?

[Roscoe]

The urchin divers go after the larger red and dark purple urchins. Which have a large row. Those are the kind found in restaurants and shipped over to Japan.
The smaller purple urchins are the problem.
The urchin picked for food are now harder to find and that state has a lottery for new urchin Licenses. Plus the fact a large number of the urchin divers I knew have pasted on.
There are many articles and youtube videos here is one
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/97580...sts-are-losing
Its going to be a ling time before things return to what we think as normal

[FISH11]

Thank you for the reply and the link to the article. It's insane how much kelp has disappeared and to see it's not just here in So Cal. Such a huge change in such a short time.