Mendocino Beacon: Help the Kelp alliance looks to the future
Last Saturday morning, chilly smoke-filled air did not deter the 32 divers who had signed up to pick purple sea urchin off the ocean floor in Caspar Bay, the final urchin cleanup of the year done by the “Help the Kelp” alliance.
Noyo Center for Marine Science; the Watermen’s Alliance, a recreational divers’ group; commercial fishermen; California Department of Fish and Wildlife; Reef Check, an ocean monitoring organization, and many others have been working over the past year to explore remedies for the North Coast’s devastated kelp beds and abalone population and educate the fishing community and the public at large on the problem.