The Kelp Crisis & Regenerative Aquaculture
Beginning in 2013, a perfect storm of environmental disasters struck the Mendocino Coast. Unprecedented marine heatwaves triggered an outbreak of sea star wasting disease, devastating the sunflower sea star—the purple urchin's primary predator. Without this critical check on their population, purple urchins multiplied rapidly, eating their way through our underwater landscape and transforming lush kelp forests into barren wastelands.
The cascade of impacts has been catastrophic. Our bull kelp forests—the foundation of our nearshore ecosystem—have virtually disappeared. The commercial red urchin fishery, once our region's second-largest, now operates under federal disaster relief. The recreational fishery for red abalone, a culturally and economically crucial species, closed completely in 2018 for the first time in California history and has no timeline for reopening. What began as an ecological emergency now is now a threat to the economic and cultural fabric of our coastal communities.
Without intervention, scientists fear these "urchin barrens" may become a permanent state, leaving our marine ecosystems and the livelihoods they support in ruins.
ECOSYSTEM IN CRISIS
Bull kelp forests are the foundation of our nearshore coastal ecosystem. The floating canopy of this algae species gives shelter to young fish and the kelp itself provides food for economically & culturally important species, such as red abalone and red sea urchin. This ecosystem has collapsed.
What’s Being Done to Address this Crisis?
Since the early years of the kelp crises, a highly collaborative team formed on the north coast to coordinate efforts for in-water restoration (like the manual urchin removal featured in the video at right) and to create kelp oasis zones in several carefully selected parts of the coast. These efforts significantly increased our scientific understanding of the kelp crises and led to the creation of a Bull Kelp Recovery Plan. However, recent political shocks to state and federal grant funding highlight the reality that we cannot rely on grant funding indefinitely: a successful restoration program must be grounded in self-sustaining economic models.
This video from July 2016 shows commercial urchin divers removing purple urchin as part of the Noyo Center’s Help the Kelp program. Grant-funded restoration efforts have found limited success given the scale and desolation of these urchin barrens.
Kelp oasis zones along the Mendocino Coast. Note the extent of kelp forest canopy cover in 2008 (green & yellow) compared to 2016, after the ecosystem collapse.
For this reason, the Noyo Center is exploring the potential of regenerative aquaculture to address the kelp crises. Regenerative aquaculture is the cultivation of seaweeds and marine animals in ways that actively restore and improve ocean ecosystems. Unlike conventional operations that narrowly focus on production and profit, regenerative systems weave together economic outputs and ecosystem health. They can replenish depleted populations, restore degraded habitats, bolster biodiversity, and strengthen marine resilience. By aligning ecological and economic incentives, commercial success directly funds ecological recovery. For us, regenerative aquaculture means:
Transforming destroyers into delicacies: We remove overabundant, starving purple urchins and transform them into a valuable, restorative seafood product— uni. Proceeds are reinvested into further restoration.
Saving species, saving livelihoods: Our red abalone captive breeding program safeguards the future of the species today and lays the groundwork for the fishery to sustainably reopen in the future.
Working with nature, not against it: Our land-based system integrates multiple species—urchins, abalone, seaweed, and (on the horizon) bull kelp and sunflower sea stars—mirroring natural ecological relationships while avoiding the impacts of ocean-based farming.
Our approach offers a dual solution: restoring kelp forests to heal our ecosystem and diversifying the economy to revitalize the Noyo Harbor and surrounding community, which is struggling from declines in timber, fishing, and cannabis industries. This sustainable maritime industry can breathe new life into the region.
The timeline below shows the work we’ve done to pilot these programs and demonstrate their feasibility. Programs focused on other keystone species are on the horizon. Sunflower sea star breeding programs could restore the natural predator of purple urchins. Bull kelp restoration using seeded line created at our field station could help reestablish kelp forests. The capacity and expertise we build for one species support our efforts to restore the next.
To advance regenerative aquaculture, we need to strengthen our staff capacity and infrastructure. Our immediate funding goals are to hire an invertebrate biologist, upgrade aquaculture systems for more species, and prepare to scale for commercial-level production.
Partners
Our Partners include:
