Urchin cull approved for Monterey reef

[wnissen]

I just have a few questions.

So you guys had a ‘trained’ diver meetup, very cool BTW.
If someone showed up that was not trained would they have been shoo’d off?
Is anybody allowed to cull urchins at that site or is it for trained divers only?
If it is for trained divers only, do they have the legal authority to tell non trained divers to leave?
I’m guessing that the state is the one that approved the site for culling. Did the state hand over legal authority by special permit of that site to whoever put on the class to decide who and who can’t dive within those boundaries?
I’m just curious since I was led to believe that average lay persons were going to be allowed to help.
So in other words, if I as an “untrained” urchin culling diver decided to dive that spot and cull urchins within the zone as marked out according to the authority of State of California on the same day at the same time as the “trained” divers were there, would they have the legal authority to tell me to leave even though it is state property and free for all to use?

I'm sure anyone is welcome tomorrow, it's more to give single divers a chance to buddy up, which is required. I don't know if there's any legal force behind it. You have more info on the legal end than I do, probably.

However, anyone can definitely come down and help! The area around the grey buoy is specifically reserved for the general public. The signup info for that says "Legally a sportfishing license permits any diver to cull urchins on the project site. This portal is intended for casual untrained divers to cull urchins consistent with the project design and collect their data."

 

[MichaelMc]

I just have a few questions.

Yeah. I think this was asked and answered already.
Actually I think by your email with fish and game and your very detailed write up here of their response.

And the project's prior status videos said the above, as has been reported up thread.

ETA: I'd apologize for using 'asked and answered' and ask forgiveness that it is from the undo influence of (snip) my siblings being a lawyer and judge, but you asked whether California had granted the legal authority over that public site, etc, etc, ....., so (snip).

Bamboo Reef was also doing classes.

Ok, back to browsing for any interesting sidemount stuff, or back to work.

 

[wnissen]

Unofficial updates from the webinar last night!

First, the grid is clear (or nearly so)! I haven't gone back for a dive since my training, but many people have. So the next phase is beginning. Rather than a fully marked tape measure for every lane, they will be virtual. You'll drop at the buoy, go to your assigned distance on the tape, and then attempt to keep a heading due east or west (depending on your assignment) within your 5 m section.

There's also a proposed bill to add restoration as a permitted activity in the marine protected areas, which would (at least in theory) permit future restoration projects at the sites we all know and love in the MPAs.

There was lots more in the webinar, it was recorded, so hopefully it's available.

Meetup this Sunday at 8 a.m.!

 

[Bigbella]

There's also a proposed bill to add restoration as a permitted activity in the marine protected areas, which would (at least in theory) permit future restoration projects at the sites we all know and love in the MPAs.

That will, unfortunately be a very hard sell, to the Parks Department and Fish and Game, who, for years, have seen the various refuges -- both on land and in sea -- as static museum pieces. When we dealt with the Department in Sacramento, on North Coast barrens, some years ago, only one of the pencil necks ever admitted to having gone diving -- to Bonaire, over a decade before; and thought that urchins were simply odd novelties, limited to tide pools.

By way of analogy, one of my professors at university, who taught botany and forestry, was lambasted by some of her Sierra Club colleagues. for even suggesting that there should be any wholesale brush clearing and / or controlled burning, in areas of the Sierra parklands, which, by that time, had not seen significant fires, since President Wilson; and, more recently. much of that accumulated duff, from the Caldor Fire, then threatening South Shore Tahoe, had been accumulating since the close of WWII; and various calls to clear anything, outside of property lines, have fallen on deaf ears . . .

 

[wnissen]

For those who are interested in the academic research on kelp forests, here's a new paper that discusses some of the challenges, both inherent and in the world as it is.

Ecosystem-based management for kelp forest ecosystems

Kelp forests line a quarter of the world’s coastlines and provide diverse ecosystem services. While kelps are a harvested resource themselves, they ar…

www.sciencedirect.com

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

For those who are interested in the academic research on kelp forests, here's a new paper that discusses some of the challenges, both inherent and in the world as it is.

Ecosystem-based management for kelp forest ecosystems

Kelp forests line a quarter of the world’s coastlines and provide diverse ecosystem services. While kelps are a harvested resource themselves, they ar…

www.sciencedirect.com

Thank you for posting that.

 

[wnissen]

Not sure if you have to have the Kelp Restoration certification, but the Beach Hopper II is offering a discounted Thursday sailing at 9 a.m..

 

[wnissen]

Saw this cute post from an Alaskan kelp researcher, thought it would be welcome here.


Going to do my first urchin dive since certification this Saturday, has anyone dived off the orange buoy? I can't find the instructions for how to find ones lane.

 

[MichaelMc]

Saw this cute post from an Alaskan kelp researcher, thought it would be welcome here.
View attachment 701625

Going to do my first urchin dive since certification this Saturday, has anyone dived off the orange buoy? I can't find the instructions for how to find ones lane.

My recollection is the winter goal is just keeping them back, with less specific lanes. If you can't find more specifics I'd go with that.

 

[wnissen]

My recollection is the winter goal is just keeping them back, with less specific lanes. If you can't find more specifics I'd go with that.

Interesting, I knew they had made at least one full pass of the grid, but I thought that the orange buoy had one transect laid. So that you could drop, find your assigned letter, take a heading, and do virtual lanes. Seems more efficient than re-doing the grid, but I think your suggestion is right. The "assignment" I got has all lanes in the grid.