Researchers alarmed by the proliferation of purple urchin that have decimated kelp forests along the north coast are experimenting with a somewhat more brute force tactic for getting rid of them – they’re allowing divers to simply smash them.
Working with the state, the Nature Conservancy marked off a triangle test plot of water where it was urging divers to focus their energy. Cissel's group included college students from Humboldt, and Santa Rosa math teacher Jim LaFrance.
In other parts of the coast, the state allows individuals to remove up to 40 gallons of purple urchins at a time. But Caspar Cove is the only place where divers can summarily smash them in place. McHugh said the smashing may seem harsh to some, but the result mirrors the natural cycle of life playing out beneath the ocean surface.
While purple urchin are the main target of the culling, divers are trained to avoid smashing red urchin which are a prized gourmet seafood. Because the purple urchin have devastated their main food source, their shells are mostly empty and devoid of the highly prized gonad, or Recreational diver Rory Bourdage, a student at Cal Poly Humboldt, slipped on his scuba gear and into the cove's waters, diving toward the triangle target marked with pink buoys.
The Nature Conservancy is monitoring the test plot to see if the smashing will help the kelp return. The volunteer divers are asked to fill out a form so the conservancy can keep track of who was there and how many purple urchin they removed. Divers are required to have a recreational fishing permit.
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