Urchin cull approved for Monterey reef

[Bigbella]

Part of the reason culling efforts have not been that successful is because of the lack of diver participation. I see too many pissing contests about just what is the “best” solution, and not enough diving.
Doing nothing is the worst solution in my opinion.
It seems that Monterey has been getting most of the press. Have those officials even peeked at how bad it is up in Sonoma County? I doubt it because all the attention always get focused on precious Monterey. Monterey has a lot more divers, so many people go there and a lot are from the Bay Area. Even though it’s ten times worse up here it’s out of sight and out of mind for most people because they never come up here to see it.
All I ever hear is “I don’t want to go up there because the diving is not as nice, it’s too rough, and it’s too far north”. Well, until you can dedicate yourselves to a cause and forget about some pleasure diving outing riding your scooters around Point Lobos and then signing up for a three hundred dollar money grab on top of it!
It seems very elitist to me, everybody is an expert and it sounds like they are now joining the exclusive three hundred dollar club knowing that it is exclusive. The rest of us are just “helpers”?
Typical red tape.

That whole 300.00 thing was news to me -- and is patently absurd, elitist scheiß: three times what I paid for my OW certification. Typical Kali-fornia: couldn't find its ass with both hands; gouge everyone.

Virtually every diver that I know, routinely culls urchins, whether by physically removing them, on the sly (or at thirty at a time with a sport-fishing permit); or by destroying them in some other manner.

True, the North Coast -- undeservedly -- gets short shrift, when it comes to controlling the urchin infestation; and some of my favorite spots are within that area -- for spearfishing, etc.; and I have dove that coast for decades -- and maybe, even for abs once again, after, what -- 2026?!

Admittedly, I certainly didn't get to see much of the area, during the height of the covidiocy and was surprised to see how bad Salt Point had become, back in January -- even after that aforementioned, on the QT "culling" . . .

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

That whole 300.00 thing was news to me -- and is patently absurd, elitist scheiß: three times what I paid for my OW certification. Typical Kali-fornia: couldn't find its ass with both hands; gouge everyone.

Virtually every diver that I know, routinely culls urchins, whether by physically removing them, on the sly (or at thirty at a time with a sport-fishing permit); or by destroying them in some other manner.

True, the North Coast -- undeservedly -- gets short shrift, when it comes to controlling the urchin infestation; and some of my favorite spots are within that area -- for spearfishing, etc.; and I have dove that coast for decades -- and maybe, even for abs once again, after, what -- 2026?!

Admittedly, I certainly didn't get to see much of the area, during the height of the covidiocy and was surprised to see how bad Salt Point had become, back in January -- even after that aforementioned, on the QT "culling" . . .

Salt point has been bad now for at least five or six years. I haven’t been in there at all for two years, even before the Branch Covidians shut everything down. Even then it was decimated. That’s when I ran across the freshly shucked ab shells neatly lined up. I just about lost it!
I literally could not find a regular ab in that cove to save my life. The only ones I saw alive were in about two feet of water right at the beach and they were small ones. I remember when you could go out there and see hundreds of some of the finest specimens in the world, fish everywhere, nudi’s everywhere, all sorts of other sea life. It was like our personal little aquarium. Now it’s just one big giant barren.

 

[pauldw]

I do not know much about urchins, other than “do not step on them”.

It's also good, if you're being blown into a rock by surge, not to put your hand out to stop yourself when there are urchins there.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I went to Stillwater yesterday and smashed a limit doing two tanks. Conditions were actually not bad.
You guys missed out.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Virtually every diver that I know, routinely culls urchins, whether by physically removing them, on the sly (or at thirty at a time with a sport-fishing permit); or by destroying them in some other manner.
. .

The limit now is 40 gallons of crushed purple urchins per person per day. That means a large trash can filled with crushed urchin pulp. The volume of whole urchins would probably be three or four times that before crushing them down.
The limit on urchins before the new rule was 35.

When they say “crushed purple urchins” that automatically tells me that they do not care about the wantfull waste clause in the manual. Once they are crushed they would not be good for eating.

 

[wnissen]

Bamboo Reef is having an urchin class on July 10th, only three spots available as of this writing. $285 including hammer. Ouch!

A little birdie told me Diver Dan's classes will be taught by Randall Spangler, but they are still gathering names so it was preliminary at this point.

 

[Bigbella]

So f**king absurd and outright insulting; reason-one why I have really come to loathe the scuba industry!

What's to know?

hhttps://tenor.com/view/handy-man-hammer-ouch-it-hurts-hammer-in-hand-gif-13856214

 

[MichaelMc]

So f**king absurd and outright insulting; reason-one why I have really come to loathe the scuba industry!

There seem three separate things here:
1) Fish and game wanting people trained and observed before pounding on the reef in a preserve
2) A specially class with limited audience and two dives costing $285 (which seems hardly unique)
3) G2KR going ahead with their effort under those external constraints.

Which did you find absurd and outright insulting? or is it all?

 

[Bigbella]

There seem three separate things here:
1) Fish and game wanting people trained and observed before pounding on the reef in a preserve
2) A specially class with two dives costing $285 (which seems hardly unique to this class)
3) G2KR going ahead with their effort under those external constraints.

Which did you find absurd and outright insulting? or is it all?

Oh, I don't know; take your pick -- maybe paying three times what I paid for open water certification, when I first began diving, in order to operate a f**king hammer?

This scheiß is also on Fish and Game, regardless of the number of entreaties, to the Department, from both scientists (myself included) and fishermen alike -- this has been a huge problem, years in the making; and those inflexible, pasty pencil-necks in Sacto. share plenty of the blame, just sitting on their hands; and allowing little to nothing, in terms of legal controls, for over a decade or more . . .

 

[MichaelMc]

maybe paying three times what I paid for open water certification, when I first began diving,

Rainbow Reef in FL seems to charge $465 for OW these days, so that does not seem a CA thing.

I would think where not to swing is the issue. And a sanity check on suitability to be in the water focused on a task. Not simply avoiding smashing their own thumbs.

No question this is long overdue. I hope it succeeds.