Community Corner
Purple Sea Urchins Invading Sea Floor off Palos Verdes
Spiny purple sea urchins are mowing down kelp spores off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Golf ball sized purple sea urchins have taken a swath of the sea floor off the Palos Verdes Peninsula, devouring giant kelp and forcing other marine life elsewhere, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
The pincushion-like creatures have prevented a revival of the kelp forest off the Peninsula, and to combat the menace, scientists and divers will kill an estimated 4.8 million sea urchins over the next five years.
"Trillions of kelp spores are out there, falling on the seafloor," Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation Marine Programs Director Tom Ford told the Times. "They just can't get established because they're getting mowed down."
The project—expected to cost $2.5 million—is funded through the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program. Funds for the program are from a 2001 settlement involving companies that dumped DDT and PCBs into the ocean off the Peninsula.
- Read more: Off Palos Verdes Peninsula, Purple Sea Urchins Devour Kelp Forest [Los Angeles Times]
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