Here are two videos Jack Likins recently took while diving near Arch Rock Road in The Sea Ranch. He entitled one “the good” and the other “the bad.” Jack wrote, “The one clip shows some of the good, almost environmental normal, areas with healthy vegetation and sea life; and the other clip shows the same general area where the Sea Urchins are taking over.” Jack tells me that Sea Urchins have taken over the deeper waters, twenty feet and deeper. Here's a photo taken by Roger Rude of several healthy Abalones.

The Good, a healthy intertidal zone by Jack Likins

 

And here is the "bad," the ocean floor taken over by purple Sea Urchins.

Jack wrote further, “The remaining Abalone have moved into depths less than 20 feet where there is kelp [food] that the urchins haven't eaten.  I don't think the urchins like the shallower water because they can't hang onto the bottom in the rougher shallow and intertidal areas.  I'm not seeing much bull kelp but am seeing boa, giant and palm kelps, mostly in the shallower water.  I do see some short stalks of bull kelp underwater but it seems to me that the bull kelp is showing itself on the surface later and later each year, so we'll have to wait to see if it gets to the surface before the urchins eat it this year.”

There is some bull kelp to be seen off the north end of Gualala, but it is sparse. We hope the ocean can get back in balance. We know Sea Stars are recovering, so there's good news there.

Thanks to Jack for allowing me to share his videos with you here, and thanks to Roger for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

Sunny and warm at our place in Anchor Bay, though fog covers most of the ocean.