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Old 03-26-2022, 05:17 PM   #1
socal.beach.bum
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I think I heard something about a disease that has killed off a large population of starfish who are the main predators of sea urchins. Without the starfish, the purple urchin population has exploded and they are eating out all the kelp beds. Destroying vast forest everywhere they go.
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Old 03-26-2022, 06:50 PM   #2
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Sky is Falling...

The Sky is Falling Yanni...
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Old 03-26-2022, 11:27 PM   #3
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Warmer water, less starfish as mentioned, less sheephead, and most notably, less people posting.

I’ve noticed when A bite hits the boards you probably already missed it
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Old 03-27-2022, 03:39 AM   #4
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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.
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Old 03-27-2022, 07:49 AM   #5
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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.
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Old 03-27-2022, 09:14 AM   #6
kayakfisherman
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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.

Last edited by kayakfisherman; 03-27-2022 at 09:21 AM.
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Old 03-28-2022, 09:31 AM   #7
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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.
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