CASPAR, CA, 5/3/23 — Cars lined the roadway on a misty morning in Caspar last weekend, as divers unloaded gear and Mendo Fire arrived with a compressor for refueling tanks. Only one person on the beach was a paid kelp restoration specialist; some 30 other volunteers of a range of ages had come on their own time and their own dime to get in the water and smash purple urchin.
“This is the first time [since the start of COVID-19] that I feel comfortable encouraging people in large groups to come up,” Joshua Russo, founder of our local Watermen’s Alliance for urchin removal efforts by recreational divers, told The Mendocino Voice. He was impressed by the turnout — in addition to locals, people had come from as far south as Santa Cruz and as far north as Humboldt to dive for overpopulated urchin that threaten the underwater ecosystem’s vital bull kelp forests. “This is hopefully going to be a really good year.”
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