skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Trump suffers first defeat but as always doubles down for the next fight; From Ohio to Azerbaijan: How COP29 could shape local farming; Funding boosts 'green' projects in Meadville, PA; VA apprenticeships bridge skills gaps, offer career stability.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Trump has a new pick for Attorney General, his incoming "border czar" warns local Democratic officials not to impede mass deportation, and the House passes legislation that could target any nonprofit group accused of supporting terrorism.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The CDC has a new plan to improve the health of rural Americans, updated data could better prepare folks for flash floods like those that devastated Appalachia, and Native American Tribes could play a key role in the nation's energy future.

Kelp Restoration Makes Progress in Northern California

play audio
Play

Thursday, August 18, 2022   

Small sections of the kelp forests off the Mendocino coast are starting to recover with improved environmental conditions, thanks to a conservation program which sent divers to remove 45,000 pounds of purple sea urchins.

The urchins have devastated the once massive bull kelp forests, leaving a lifeless barren behind.

Dan Abbott, kelp forest program director for the Reef Check Foundation, said it is the first large-scale kelp-restoration project of its kind in northern California.

"It's not back to where it was, say pre-2015," Abbott acknowledged. "It's still only about 20% of the historical average. But again, it's only like a year and a half in. And it's a very encouraging result."

The purple sea-urchin population has exploded in the last eight years or so, partially because a wasting disease has decimated their chief predator, the sea star. In addition, the area has no sea otters to keep the urchins in check, because the otters were hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.

Sheila Semans, director of the Noyo Center for Marine Science in Fort Bragg, said the kelp forests there have recovered 5 to 10 percent - and serve as crucial habitat for hundreds of species.

"The sea lions hunt in it, the abalone eat it, the rockfish hide in it," Semans outlined. "There's just so many ecosystem services that it provides. On top of that, it sequesters carbon, and it buffers wave action along the coast."

The Noyo Center also is working to create a new fishery for purple urchins, which can be fattened up in an aquaculture facility and sold. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said it plans to develop a comprehensive statewide Kelp Recovery and Management Plan over the next five to 10 years.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
The smoking rate among adults in Maryland is 9.6%, much lower than the national average of 12.9%. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A new report on lung cancer by the American Lung Association showed Maryland has quite a bit of room to improve diagnoses and treatment but experts sa…


Social Issues

play sound

La Niña is bringing a cooler, wetter winter to Oregon and likely driving up heating bills as systems work harder. This is the third year of …

Environment

play sound

The number of pedestrians and bicyclists killed on roadways in the U.S. has nearly doubled in the past 12 years and a New Mexico researcher wants to …


Social Issues

play sound

CLARIFICATION: We updated language to clarify the timing for when the study's authors began tracking certain outcome measures for children within the …

Health and Wellness

play sound

By Kyla Russell for WISH-TV.Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the WISH-TV-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service C…

Social Issues

play sound

A recent study from Florida Atlantic University highlights a concerning rise in alcohol-related deaths across the United States, with mortality rates …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021