A little hope!

[PjFish]

Over the past 15 years Ive seen my best fishing/ spearfishing spots on our northern Cal coast turn from lush kelp forests to barren rock deserts due to the explosion of sea urchins mowing down all the kelp! Lingcod, Cabezon, and numerous species of kelp bass used to be easy limits along our shoreline by fishing or spearfishing before this starfish wasting disease occurred. Abalone diving has been closed since 2018 due to declining numbers and scheduled to reopen next year which is doubtful. Poaching has always been an issue with abs but the severe decline coincided with the star fish wasting disease in my personal hands on observations..Abalone eat kelp! Urchins eat kelp but multiply like rabbits devouring entire kelp forests without their natural starfish predators!
Anyhow enough rants lol hopefully this breeding program will catch on so larger institutions participate helping to save the kelp forests

 

[finalphaze987]

If they lower the price on Uni I'd be glad to step in and help reduce their population .

At $25 bucks a pop, its hard to get full off.

Same with the overwhelming population of king crab. Lol