10 Comments
User's avatar
Mary Abbott's avatar

Hopefully the dive group has communicated w the Bodega Bay Marine Lab..They have a purple urchin program

Expand full comment
Mark Fernquest's avatar

I don't know if they have, but I believe that the groups on the North Coast are aware of each other's efforts.

Expand full comment
Kathy Kerst's avatar

Fascinating story! Well documented.

Expand full comment
Linda Conley's avatar

Thanks for this important story. Nice to see local reporting of this quality, and SF Maritime and Coastal History reposted it too.

Expand full comment
Kent Jenkins's avatar

Yes to a Uni Festival!

Expand full comment
Kelly Pappas's avatar

So grateful for the hard work of this group! Thank you for being custodians of the ocean

ecosystem. 🙏🏽💕

Expand full comment
Roderick McAulay's avatar

Mr. Fernquest needs to consult a map before writing about geographic locations. Stillwater Cove is many winding miles north of Jenner, not in Jenner as he states. It is well north of Fort Ross, between Timber Cove and Salt Point State Park.

Expand full comment
Mark Fernquest's avatar

Thank you for your comment, Roderick. I am familiar with Stillwater Cove, and a quick google search informs me that Stillwater Cove's street address is 22455 Highway 1, Jenner, CA 95450. You can find it here: https://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/visit/find-a-park/stillwater-cove-regional-park

Expand full comment
Ellie Dwight's avatar

Thanks for an informative article! I sent it to a friend of mine in the Monterey/Carmel area and she sent this message back to me-- I thought you'd be interested: "They didn't mention that this is due to the loss of sunflower stars. Several years ago, we had a double whammy of warming ocean that they called the warm blob and a lot of starfish had something called sea star, wasting disease. It killed almost all of the sunflower stars, which are a major predator of the sea urchins. There’s also people trying to grow up more sunflower stars."

Expand full comment
Mark Fernquest's avatar

Hi Ellie. Thanks for your kind comment. I do mention the loss of the sunflower stars due to disease in paragraph 7. I didn't know about about people trying to grow more of them. So interesting. Perhaps these groups will form a coalition at some point as their projects progress.

Expand full comment