Upcoming urchin dive - Sept. 17, ‘23

[Eric Sedletzky]

Next Purple Urchin Removal Dive:
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Location: Stillwater Cove in Sonoma County.
Time: 8:00 - 9:00 am for unloading, set up, gearing up and briefing. Diving after that at your own pace.
Meet at the picnic tables on site. There are restrooms and picnic tables/barbecues at the site.
Parking is available for free up at the turnout on the highway, or you can use the day use parking up in the campground lot. Fee is $7 day or parking pass.
You will also need:
At least one large green Trident game bag, I use three.
A lift bag to raise the full bag(s) of urchins and float them to the beach.
Enough containers to hold one limit of urchins (40 gallons of whole urchins). I have two 20 gallon brute trash cans I use to measure a limit. I also have many 5 gallon buckets for those that need containers.
You will also need a valid California fishing license with an ocean stamp.
Kevlar gloves help. You can also use a thin leather glove pulled over your dive glove. I use a small hand held gardening rake and it works awesome. No more holes in my gloves and urchin spines in my fingers, plus it’s lightning fast to fill a bag. I can fill a limit (three bags) on one tank.
I also have a place to dump the urchins now, about 5 miles away up on top of Seaview Ridge on my brothers property, he has a backhoe, for those that do not want to deal with hauling them back home. So this is a huge bonus.
If anybody has questions please ask.
Your contribution and volunteerism will pay you ten fold back in satisfaction knowing you did something for the greater good of the ocean. The kelp is depending on you!
Thanks!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Bumping this up so it stays visible.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Regarding September 17th diving at Stillwater Cove:
Seal’s Water Sports will be putting this up on their website fun dive page, so if you are subscribed you will be getting a duplicate. Hopefully we’ll get a good turnout. Also, there will be a waiver that you’ll need to fill out if you haven’t done so already. It’s an acknowledgment that you understand you are participating on your own as an independent diver under your own free will, and you understand you are solely responsible for yourself and your actions. You understand this is not a lead dive, there is no assigned dive master or lifeguard on the beach or in the water. Make sure your shore diving skills are up to par for the conditions that day which can be unpredictable. If the conditions look too rough we will cancel the fun dive and our diving, but you are welcome to continue with the dive if you wish. It’s a free world.
Yeah I know, blah blah blah blah, but I gotta mention it.

Don’t forget your lunch.
A thermos of hot tea or hot chocolate, even hot soup is really nice when you get out of that brisk and refreshing cold water.
Just a suggestion.

Thanks!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Stillwater Cove Dive Report, September 17th.

It was a great day on the coast! Actually, every day spent on the coast is a great day.
We had five divers total. Each diver did really well collecting urchins. We had two people on shore for shore support, to weigh in the urchin bags and to help drag full bags of urchins from the water to the containers, and help divers gear up, ungear, etc.
The ocean was FLAT!
No wind, overcast but not cold.
Vis was 8-10 feet.
Water was about 52 degrees.

Our total poundage for the day was 625 lbs. of purple urchins. That information will be provided to the State, Marine Sanctuary Office - Kelp Restoration Project. They requested the data.
So we’re official now, our work will be recognized and logged for scientific purposes. Pretty cool.

I also secured a place to dispose of the urchins so people can be relieved now knowing that they won’t have to deal with them, especially if they drive a smaller car. That’s huge for us.
So if anybody is thinking of joining in you don’t have to worry about disposal. Also, we are working on providing more containers to hold urchins. That also is a barrier to participation. If you can provide your own containerage great! But if not we will do our best to cover that for you.

A pic of the day:

And meet Zeke Cissell, owner of Seal’s Water Sports in Santa Rosa, and a great guy!

 

[Johnoly]

......Our total poundage for the day was 625 lbs. of purple urchins.............

WoW,,Congrats to you and your team on the great cleanup !!

 

[summitdogg]

Thank you for organizing Eric!


QUOTE="Eric Sedletzky, post: 10077783, member: 426285"]
Stillwater Cove Dive Report, September 17th.

It was a great day on the coast! Actually, every day spent on the coast is a great day.
We had five divers total. Each diver did really well collecting urchins. We had two people on shore for shore support, to weigh in the urchin bags and to help drag full bags of urchins from the water to the containers, and help divers gear up, ungear, etc.
The ocean was FLAT!
No wind, overcast but not cold.
Vis was 8-10 feet.
Water was about 52 degrees.

Our total poundage for the day was 625 lbs. of purple urchins. That information will be provided to the State, Marine Sanctuary Office - Kelp Restoration Project. They requested the data.
So we’re official now, our work will be recognized and logged for scientific purposes. Pretty cool.

I also secured a place to dispose of the urchins so people can be relieved now knowing that they won’t have to deal with them, especially if they drive a smaller car. That’s huge for us.
So if anybody is thinking of joining in you don’t have to worry about disposal. Also, we are working on providing more containers to hold urchins. That also is a barrier to participation. If you can provide your own containerage great! But if not we will do our best to cover that for you.

A pic of the day:
View attachment 802941

And meet Zeke Cissell, owner of Seal’s Water Sports in Santa Rosa, and a great guy!
View attachment 802942
[/QUOTE]

Stillwater Cove Dive Report, September 17th.

It was a great day on the coast! Actually, every day spent on the coast is a great day.
We had five divers total. Each diver did really well collecting urchins. We had two people on shore for shore support, to weigh in the urchin bags and to help drag full bags of urchins from the water to the containers, and help divers gear up, ungear, etc.
The ocean was FLAT!
No wind, overcast but not cold.
Vis was 8-10 feet.
Water was about 52 degrees.

Our total poundage for the day was 625 lbs. of purple urchins. That information will be provided to the State, Marine Sanctuary Office - Kelp Restoration Project. They requested the data.
So we’re official now, our work will be recognized and logged for scientific purposes. Pretty cool.

I also secured a place to dispose of the urchins so people can be relieved now knowing that they won’t have to deal with them, especially if they drive a smaller car. That’s huge for us.
So if anybody is thinking of joining in you don’t have to worry about disposal. Also, we are working on providing more containers to hold urchins. That also is a barrier to participation. If you can provide your own containerage great! But if not we will do our best to cover that for you.

A pic of the day:
View attachment 802941

And meet Zeke Cissell, owner of Seal’s Water Sports in Santa Rosa, and a great guy!
View attachment 802942