<story><title>Satellite imagery shows Northern California kelp forests have collapsed</title><url>https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/satellite-imagery-shows-northern-california-kelp-forests-have-collapsed-180977214/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nradov</author><text>I have been diving in the Monterey, CA region since 1999 and have seen the change first hand. Sunflower sea stars are now extinct in the area; I haven&amp;#x27;t seen one in years. Some of the smaller sea star species have started to gradually recover but they aren&amp;#x27;t effective at preying on purple urchins. There is a local group culling urchins but they&amp;#x27;ll only be able to cover a small area.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;g2kr.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;g2kr.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>deanCommie</author><text>Same thing in British Columbia: over 90%, 5.7 billion have died since 2013 [1].&lt;p&gt;When I was a kid in the 90s, and starting to dive in the 2000s, sea stars were everywhere on the ocean floor, even really close to the city center of Vancouver. They were so ubiquitous that they were completely uninteresting to us locals. We would hear that BC was considered world-renowned for scuba diving quality, and think &amp;quot;How dull, it&amp;#x27;s just a shit ton of sea stars&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;(Of course, we were young, stupid, and also called them starfish not sea stars then)&lt;p&gt;Me and some friends would go camping at an oceanfront spot on Vancouver Island every year, and go crabbing with mixed results. Half of the irritation was sometimes you&amp;#x27;d be pulling up what felt like a really heavy crab trap full of goodness (We were always responsible and only kept the males over the legal size), only to find it full of sea stars who chased away the crabs and ate our bait.&lt;p&gt;Then, about six or seven years ago, the sea stars just...disappeared. And they didn&amp;#x27;t come back.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbc.ca&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;canada&amp;#x2F;british-columbia&amp;#x2F;sunflower-sea-star-decline-1.5844674&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbc.ca&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;canada&amp;#x2F;british-columbia&amp;#x2F;sunflower-se...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Satellite imagery shows Northern California kelp forests have collapsed</title><url>https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/satellite-imagery-shows-northern-california-kelp-forests-have-collapsed-180977214/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nradov</author><text>I have been diving in the Monterey, CA region since 1999 and have seen the change first hand. Sunflower sea stars are now extinct in the area; I haven&amp;#x27;t seen one in years. Some of the smaller sea star species have started to gradually recover but they aren&amp;#x27;t effective at preying on purple urchins. There is a local group culling urchins but they&amp;#x27;ll only be able to cover a small area.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;g2kr.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;g2kr.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aryik</author><text>Thank you for sharing this. I literally got open water certified in Monterey this afternoon, and I will be signing up to volunteer!</text></comment>