Could Zombie Purple Urchins Eliminate Kelp and Kelp Cutters?

To most sailors, kelp is a nuisance. It’s a hazard we all try to avoid, since catching it on keels and rudders slows you down whether you’re racing or cruising. It’s never fun. Getting rid of kelp would make sailing so much better. But most sailors also love the ocean and the sealife it supports. Sailors are also sushi lovers, fishermen, watermen and divers who dodge kelp on the surface, but dive to explore it on other days.

A recent story on KQED highlighted a distressing change in Northern California’s kelp forests, meaning life under your keel is not doing well. In 2014 a combination of warm water from the Northwest, an El Niño, and other factors killed the large 24-limbed sunflower stars that feed on purple urchins. The lack of the sunflower stars meant the purple urchin population grew, and since they feed on kelp, the kelp forests have been decimated, thereby upsetting the ecological balance along the California coast.

Having eaten up most of the kelp, the now-undernourished purple urchins, called zombie urchins, have been undermining the incomes of urchin divers and disrupting the recreational and commercial fishing world. Solutions from trapping to teams of divers harvesting the urchins have helped, but the problem isn’t yet solved. If you like sushi make sure you order uni, the sea urchin; it’s a way for you to help the return of the kelp forests one bite at a time.

You may be using the kelp cutter on your keel less often, but it’s not a good thing for sealife along the California coast.