UrchinFest returns to Mendocino coast with celebration of uni, ecosystem education

LITTLE RIVER, CA, 5/22/23 — Mendocino County’s second annual UrchinFest is coming up June 16 – 17, offering an exploration of the overpopulated North Coast urchin for all the senses. Some will even be able to hit the water and dive for urchin! 

The festival is born out of dire circumstances in the nearshore ecosystem, where bull kelp are a keystone species that provide habitat for other underwater creatures and even regulate the water’s pH. Warming waters and the catastrophic decline of the sunflower sea star in the past decade led to the overpopulation of purple urchin, a predator of kelp, and the loss of more than 90% of local bull kelp. Because there’s no commercial market for purple urchin, restoration specialists along the coast are exploring different ways to foster kelp regrowth and offset urchin populations.