Wanted A Diver's Guide to Northern California, Bruce Watkins

[Thrutch]

Trying to track down a copy of Bruce Watkins' A Diver's Guide to Northern California. Give me a holler if you've got one you'd be willing to part with. Thanks!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I’ll keep an eye out.
Have you tried contacting the publisher directly (Saint Brendan, California Diving News) and see what they say?

 

[Thrutch]

I’ll keep an eye out.
Have you tried contacting the publisher directly (Saint Brendan, California Diving News) and see what they say?

Thanks! I have not, but it's now on my list of things to do today done. Fingers crossed.

 

[Thrutch]

Okay, the publisher is out of copies, but she put me in touch with Bruce Watkins himself, who gave me a list of shops who might have it still. Time to make some phone calls!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Just a little info about that book. It has info in it that’s way out of date, especially about abalone harvesting and kelp. When the book was written the abalone limit was 4 per day and 100 for the year. They had already initiated the tagging system.
There was also abundant kelp and he covered a lot about how to deal with thick kelp. There is no kelp anymore to speak of, and abalone harvesting has been shut down now for eight years. So a lot has changed. The book is almost a historical footnote.
He does get into a lot if the history of the area, it’s very interesting, and if course the dive site list is the same.
I attended a seminar Bruce gave once at a dive club meeting, that’s where I got my signed copy.
Bruce is a very smart dude.
I’m promising to keep up my ongoing peeled eye for a copy hidden somewhere for you.

 

[Thrutch]

There is no kelp anymore to speak of

Is this true of the whole area or just much of it?

 

[wnissen]

Just a little info about that book. It has info in it that’s way out of date, especially about abalone harvesting and kelp. When the book was written the abalone limit was 4 per day and 100 for the year. They had already initiated the tagging system.
There was also abundant kelp and he covered a lot about how to deal with thick kelp. There is no kelp anymore to speak of, and abalone harvesting has been shut down now for eight years. So a lot has changed. The book is almost a historical footnote.
He does get into a lot if the history of the area, it’s very interesting, and if course the dive site list is the same.
I attended a seminar Bruce gave once at a dive club meeting, that’s where I got my signed copy.
Bruce is a very smart dude.
I’m promising to keep up my ongoing peeled eye for a copy hidden somewhere for you.

I don't disagree with your premises, but on the other hand the cheapest copy of his other book on Monterey is going for $50 in good condition. So the Northern California book may be harder to come by than at first thought.

Is this true of the whole area or just much of it?

95% is gone since 2008.

Monitoring the Collapse of Kelp Forests

Changing climate and a marine epidemic have combined to decimate one of Northern California’s most productive ecosystems.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

If 95% of the trees in Northern California died in that span, there would be a worldwide research and restoration effort. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

There really is not much kelp at all. And not only kelp is gone but the “false bottom” as we used to call it is gone, not even a trace. It looked like a manzanita bush with rugged and tough branches that had a wide floppy leaf. When you freedived down you thought it was the bottom but then you push it aside and could slide down underneath it and you had about 3 or 4 ft. of room to cruise under it to look for abalone. It was like diving under a house in a crawl space. Probably not the safest thing to do because it could be tough to get through with those wiry branches, and ab diving was all breath hold.
On the drive up I’m seeing some kelp beds starting to form offshore south of Fort Ross. Other than that it’s gone, there’s not much except for millions and millions of purple urchins voraciously eating everything in sight.
@wnissen is right, if people were to see this topside in a forest there would be a global outcry.
But most people don’t know the first thing about kelp other than it stinks when it gets washed up on a beach and the annoying kelp flies love it.