Be part of a Program to Restore Giant Kelp, Green Abalone, and White Sea Bass!
Marine Biologist Nancy Caruso has been directing the Orange County Ocean Restoration Project since 2002.
The Project's aim is to restore the Orange County Kelp Forest Ecosystem One Species at a Time.
The program has combined the efforts of 7,000 schoolchildren from 27 schools and 400 volunteer divers to grow and restock these organisms in the ocean and it is working! We have successfully grown and planted giant kelp forests and they have returned in areas that were barren for more than 20 years!
Students in grades 6-12 have participated in this classroom program and have been taught to grow the organisms in portable classroom nurseries. The year-long curriculum keeps the students engaged in hands on learning as they study kelp forest ecology, the biology of the organism, the history of it's decline in our local waters, aquaculture, water chemistry, and how to help conserve and preserve the species.
The Orange County Ocean Restoration Project provides participants a chance to literally change the world. It has been 'bringing science to life' for students and everyday citizens involved in the project for almost 10 years.
This Project has only been the beginning for Nancy, the kelp, and thousands of schoolchildren throughout Southern California. The kelp forests are growing far more than just new habitats, this effort is inspiring people to think beyond themselves and protect their environment and earth's most precious natural resources.
(Scroll down to see video)
Green Abalone Restocking Program
Abalone used to be plentiful along the Southern California coast. Intertidal areas resembled cobblestone streets as the abalone lined the beaches and beachgoers had to step over them to get to the water. It was 1970 when people began to notice that abalone were no longer around. Fishing pressures, followed by El Nino, and an eventual bacterial outbreak has driven most abalone populations to near extinction in Southern California.
Seven species of abalones are found in California. Abalones attach with a large foot to rocky substrate, and feed primarily on drift algae. Five species of abalones (black,green, pink, red, and white) were popular sport and commercial species until Southern California populations experienced severe declines during the 1960s,1970s, 1980s and 1990s. A valuable red abalone recreational fishery still remains in Northern California but is also in danger of closure. These declines likely resulted from a combination of overharvest,disease, and a long-term warming trend leading to poor recruitment coincident with enhanced storm activity, reduced kelp abundance, and increased competition with sea urchins As a result of over 50 years of heavy fishing (both sport and commercial),poaching, predation by an increasing population of sea otters, pollution of mainland habitat, disease, and inadequate wild stock management, all five major abalone species inhabiting the central and southern Pacific coast of California are now depleted. The white abalone and the black abalone have been listed as "endangered" under the general Endangered Species Act (ESA).
For the last 7 years, I have been teaching students to grow giant kelp and replanting it along the coast of Orange County. Now, there is giant kelp in many areas that have been barren for more than 20 years. This vital ecosystem has suffered for nearly three decades from overfishing, El Niño, and poor water quality. It was all of these impacts combined that lead to the disappearance of the kelp forests. The abalone have suffered a similar plight.
More than 2400 students in 10 schools have grown and are growing green abalone in classrooms in Orange County to help restore our abalone populations. By restoring abalone to these now restored kelp forests, we can begin to rebuild this resilient ecosystem. Although there are scattered abalone along Orange County, they must be within 5 feet of one another to reproduce. This is not the case. By providing new young abalone to the reefs and using the latest scientific data to grow and restock them, we can not only restore our coastal ecosystems but teach the next generation to be stewards of their oceans.
White Sea Bass Restocking Program
Once an important game fish and commercial food fish, white sea bass had virtually disappeared from California in the 1070’s. Surveys show the loss of habitat, specifically the loss of wetlands that are important nursery habitats for the fish, along with heavy commercial fishing, and the development of gill nets had depleted the white sea bass populations to 10% of what they were only 50 years ago.
To change this course, the California Department of Fish and Game instituted the "Oceans Resources and Hatchery Enhancement Program" (ORHEP), and funded the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute's (HSWRI) experimental marine fish hatchery in Carlsbad, California. At this facility, white sea bass are bred from larval stage to 3-inches at which point a small "tag" inscribed with fertilization date and brood stock information is inserted into the jaw bone of the juvenile fish. The fish are then transported to one of 15 grow-out facilities along the California coast. We built the only indoor grow out facility for this program at Huntingtin Beach high school in 2010. This is a unique spin on the ORHEP and the California Department of Fish and Game and Hubbs SeaWorld support this project. The program had a very successful first year with 300 students growing and releasing 53 white sea bass into the ocean in June 2011. Nancy Caruso taught fish biology, topics in aquaculture, kelp forest ecology, and the history of the ORHEP in the classroom over the school year. We hope to expand this program and get more students and schools involved in the coming years.
