Voyage

Help Save Kelp

Please send email to the California Fish & Game Commission regarding the Petition for permission to cull kelp-destroying sea urchins, using this form.

Your Name:
Email Address:
City or Town and State where you live:	,
Phone Number (optional):
Subject:	Comment on adoption of Petition 2020-001
Your Subject:

Your Message (Please personalize the message by editing it. Your own words have the greatest impact.)
	Dear Members of the California Fish and Game Commission, I am writing to ask you to adopt Petition 2020-001 in its entirety. Please Help Save Kelp in Central California. I applaud your movement toward approval of urchin culling in the Monterey area. The recommended action, permitting work at Tankers' Reef alone, is a good start but it is not enough. Adoption of both proposed sites per the petition will produce better science because: 1) Tankers' Reef is shale, whereas 99% of the rest of the region is granite bottom. Shale is soft and kelp cannot stay attached to it as long as on granite. 2) Tankers' Reef has no kelp now and historically has hosted kelp inconsistently. Urchin culling there will encourage kelp to return for a season, but is unlikely to foster a persistent kelp forest. We already have good data indicating that culling urchins on granite can foster kelp regrowth. Urchin culling on shale cannot tell us how to organize volunteers to regrow kelp on granite. Culling may require a different extent of urchin thinning, different frequency of diving maintain that thinned density, etc. We should have a study site on a granite bottom. 3) We need to cull urchins in order to start restoration of giant kelp forests on granite reefs around the Monterey Peninsula, which are accessible only within marine protected areas. Your action will be a good start. We hope this is the beginning of a collaboration and dialogue between the department, the commission, the recreational diving community and concerned interests like fishers and seaside businesses. To prevent the eradication of giant kelp forests throughout the region, we should begin an inclusive process, featuring dialogue with stakeholders, that will lead to a comprehensive plan to preserve and restore them. Today, vast areas covered by sea urchins have replaced many Central California kelp forests. Almost nothing can survive in these depleted urchin barrens. Food and habitat for sea otters disappears as whole ecosystems collapse. We have an endangered species list. We should be giving even greater attention to endangered ecosystems, like giant kelp forests. Thank you for taking time to read these comments,
Just so we know you're a real person, please enter the numeral six: Please make sure I'm subscribed to your newsletter. (We'll be sending a copy of this message, including your email address, to Keith Rootsaert, the author of the petition. He'll appreciate your words. You may get email from Keith on this subject in the future.) Please send a copy of this email to me.

Your email will go to the Commissioners via their email:
fgc (at) fgc.ca.gov
You can write a physical letter to:
California Fish and Game Commission
P.O. Box 944209
Sacramento, CA 94244-2090