Cali Kid Corals

Tired of accidently killing critters? Want to hunt urchins? Are you scuba certified?

Have expired advanced cert and got that also from night dives off the side of a zodiac, low energy zero viz and grid mapping critters. Have never killed a urchin before. Is there anything you could legally collect and acclimate to temperate like 74 deg F

Yeah I remember El Niño temps ranging from 48 to high of 68. Brrrr! 48 with a simple 7mm wetsuit was freak’n cold!
 
H2OPlayar said:
No.


Do it! Come join me, lots of local shops that can certify you and the expensive gear can be rented.


How good are your lungs? And do you have a wetsuit, weight belt and fins for free diving? I saw most of them on rocks at ~30 plus feet.


If you make that cold water tank, and it is legal, I will be happy to. I did see a fish and game warden there talk to a couple people who were fishing with a kayak. Searched all their holds and checked their papers.


The ones I split definitely had orange "meat" inside of them, however the majority of the ones I saw were 2"-4", so relatively small.
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I do have a 4/3, boots, hood, fins and snorkel! 30ft may be a little deep though... I've been using that gear to find uni around pillar point
 
Plankton said:
Have expired advanced cert and got that also from night dives off the side of a zodiac, low energy zero viz and grid mapping critters. Have never killed a urchin before. Is there anything you could legally collect and acclimate to temperate like 74 deg F

Yeah I remember El Niño temps ranging from 48 to high of 68. Brrrr! 48 with a simple 7mm wetsuit was freak’n cold!
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Padi cert is good for life, but it is a good idea to do a refresher every year or so if you aren't super comfortable with the gear or the water. And yea, I was happy with my 9-7-6 integrated hood (mostly, until the hood seal broke on the night dive. It is unlikely we could collect something and have it survive in our tropical reef tank. I know some people get chillers and make cold water tanks.


Bolicks said:
I do have a 4/3, boots, hood, fins and snorkel! 30ft may be a little deep though... I've been using that gear to find uni around pillar point
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I am down to try a different spot that has them more shallow
 
H2OPlayar said:
Padi cert is good for life, but it is a good idea to do a refresher every year or so if you aren't super comfortable with the gear or the water. And yea, I was happy with my 9-7-6 integrated hood (mostly, until the hood seal broke on the night dive. It is unlikely we could collect something and have it survive in our tropical reef tank. I know some people get chillers and make cold water tanks.



I am down to try a different spot that has them more shallow
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PADI is good for life!
Did not know that
My last dive was Elat Israel...1984
Forgot to retrieve my card
 
Chromis said:
Thanks for sharing this, it’s shocking how fast climate change is altering the environment. “Since 2014, 95 percent of the kelp have vanished across a large part of Northern California”

It was interesting to hear that urchins can live a long time without food. That’s probably why I see snails dying but never urchins when the algae gets thin in my tanks.
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I was reading something that the starfish decline was tied directly to purple urchin explosion in numbers which then is tied to kelp destruction.

And yeah story I saw referred to them as "zombie urchins" such that they go into a deep level of hibernation (of sorts) and then can pop back to life when needed. Now not sure how true either of these stories are, using the news to get science news is usually hit or miss, especially when they use headlines like Zombie Urchins!!!!
 
H2OPlayar said:
Padi cert is good for life, but it is a good idea to do a refresher every year or so if you aren't super comfortable with the gear or the water. And yea, I was happy with my 9-7-6 integrated hood (mostly, until the hood seal broke on the night dive. It is unlikely we could collect something and have it survive in our tropical reef tank. I know some people get chillers and make cold water tanks.



I am down to try a different spot that has them more shallow
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Also, requires a sportfishing license. Interestingly, it seems that you could collect an octopus for a personal aquarium: https://californiaoutdoors.wordpres...ing-marine-invertebrates-for-a-home-aquarium/ (not that I would recommend that)
 
Oh man, I did my PADI course in Mexico around 2000 as a teen. From what I recall, it was a 2 day course and we only dove to a max of 50 feet with supervision, not the full blown open water cert so I doubt it's still valid. In any case I would want to refresh and retake the whole course.

This has me thinking, I wonder if I could collect starfish and freeze them to feed my harlequin shrimp in chunks. The fat ones around here would last me months. From the DFG regs this is what I found. If I'm interpreting this correctly, as long as I'm a quarter mile out then collecting them is legal.
CCR Title 14, Section 29.05(b)
tidal invertebrates may not be taken in any tidepool or other areas between the high tide mark (defined as Mean Higher High Tide) and 1,000 feet seaward and lateral to the low tide mark (defined as Mean Lower Low Water)
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CaseyP said:
Oh man, I did my PADI course in Mexico around 2000 as a teen. From what I recall, it was a 2 day course and we only dove to a max of 50 feet with supervision, not the full blown open water cert so I doubt it's still valid. In any case I would want to refresh and retake the whole course.

This has me thinking, I wonder if I could collect starfish and freeze them to feed my harlequin shrimp in chunks. From the DFG regs this is what I found. If I'm interpreting this correctly, as long as I'm a quarter mile out then collecting them is legal.
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It's confusing to me - you can definitely forage for mussels within tidepools on a sportfishing license...
 
Bolicks said:
It's confusing to me - you can definitely forage for mussels within tidepools on a sportfishing license...
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The reg I quoted seems to be the catch all for invertebrates, then specific species like mussels, urchins, abalone, etc have specific regs. Sometimes I feel like you need a legal interpreter for these regs -_- As an avid fisherman I have to re-read these multiple times, and even then I'm unsure of myself.

The part I left off excludes mussells from this

California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations

The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages California's diverse fish, wildlife, and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the public.
wildlife.ca.gov
In addition, tidal invertebrates may not be taken in any tidepool or other areas between the high tide mark (defined as Mean Higher High Tide) and 1,000 feet seaward and lateral to the low tide mark (defined as Mean Lower Low Water) except as follows:

(1) [...]red abalone, limpets, moon snails, turban snails, chiones, clams, cockles, mussels, rock scallops, native oysters, octopuses, squid, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, sand dollars, sea urchins and worms except that no worms may be taken in any mussel bed, unless taken incidental to the harvesting of mussels.
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CaseyP said:
The reg I quoted seems to be the catch all for invertebrates, then specific species like mussels, urchins, abalone, etc have specific regs. Sometimes I feel like you need a legal interpreter for these regs -_- As an avid fisherman I have to re-read these multiple times, and even then I'm unsure of myself.

The part I left off excludes mussells from this

California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations

The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages California's diverse fish, wildlife, and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the public.
wildlife.ca.gov
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Gotcha! I know, I get really nervous fishing the coast...
 
JVU said:
FYI- As far as I recall you can’t kill or collect anything from marine preserves (like all of Monterey Bay) except in specific carved-out situations like the purple urchins.
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Right! I was even a little nervous about "hunting" these purple urchins but it seems like this is the right thing to do from a biological or a naturalistic perspective. Usually I am not a hunter or fisherperson, but knowing I am helping preserve the kelp forest, while getting to use my dive knife and get a satisfying crunch was all too much fun.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I was reading something that the starfish decline was tied directly to purple urchin explosion in numbers which then is tied to kelp destruction.

And yeah story I saw referred to them as "zombie urchins" such that they go into a deep level of hibernation (of sorts) and then can pop back to life when needed. Now not sure how true either of these stories are, using the news to get science news is usually hit or miss, especially when they use headlines like Zombie Urchins!!!!
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got a link? I have never head of SFWS being caused by urchins.
 
BAYMAC said:
got a link? I have never head of SFWS being caused by urchins.
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Other way around, SFWS is why the urchin population is exploding, something about one particular type of sun star being the only real predator to the purple urchin or something. Sorry if the way I worded it with ambiguous
 
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