By Mary O’KEEFE

A couple of weeks ago I spoke with Kayla Feairheller, founder of Bleu World, a non-profit organization that is empowering people to be citizen scientists as they explore oceans and beaches. We spoke about the expeditions she was arranging and some of the science Bleu World will be exploring. During the conversation Feairheller and board member Jessy Shelton (full disclosure – Jessy is my daughter) mentioned the increased number of sea urchins and how this affected kelp forests. With the information I got from them I went on a research binge that took me from a starfish pandemic to the invasion of zombie sea urchins.

Our movie opens on the image of the Earth: beautiful, blue with whiffs of white clouds. Zoom into the ocean off the West Coast and the images of a sea kelp forest gently swaying with the tides. Close-up on a small spiny purple creature making its way ever so slowly up on the kelp’s stipe (it’s like a stalk). Suddenly the stipe breaks way and the kelp plant falls into the darkness of the sea. Camera pulls back to reveal that most of the kelp forest is gone as if it were clear-cut. Pan down to see the floor of the once majestic kelp forest now covered with the purple spiny creatures. The title appears: “Purple Zombies of the Deep.”

Oh, if only this was just a movie! But it is real life and unfortunately humans are the real antagonists of the story.

It began with the warming of the ocean waters…

According to NOAA, when the sea surface warmed it created an “ever-expanding hot spot that soon became known as ‘the Blob.’” By the fall of 2014, it had spread up and down the West Coast. It pushed sea surface temperatures as much as seven degrees Fahrenheit above average.

With the warming water, a sea star wasting disease began to kill starfish … so many in fact that scientists determined it was the largest disease epidemic ever observed in wild marine animals. Although the disease has been recorded in the past, a study by the University of California–Davis found that the warm water anomalies made the starfish more susceptible to the disease.

Sea stars are the natural predator of the sea urchin and without a threat the urchin population exploded. Sea urchins eat kelp and used to hide from predators in the crevices of the kelp forest.

Blades (leaves) from the kelp would naturally break off and fall to the areas where urchins were hiding and they would come out and eat the kelp pieces; however, with the warming water, kelp did not grow as fast so the urchins began to venture out to forage for food. They soon discovered there were no longer predatory threats and became bolder, according to a U.S. Santa Cruz report.

The urchins thrived. Divers began reporting areas blanketed by the purple sea urchin. They would watch the urchins climb the kelp and break the stalks off. As the urchins grazed they destroyed the kelp forest creating urchin barrens. By 2018 it was determined that about 80% of the kelp forest cover in northern California had been lost.

“We believe several factors initiated the urchin outbreak,” said Joshua Smith, a UC Santa Cruz student who studied the issue in 2017. “The loss of a major urchin predator was soon followed by a decline in kelp productivity due to climatic stressors.”(From an article in UC Santa Cruz Newscenter.)

So why did the urchins not get killed off by their predator the sea otter? That is the question Smith asked. It appeared that sea otters were only eating the urchins that were near the areas of the old sea kelp forest. They did not eat the urchins in the barrens because they had less nutrition and in fact had been called by some “zombie urchins” because when they were opened up they were empty inside.

The sea otters were helping in the areas of what was left of the kelp forest but problems remained with the zombie urchins.

Between the urchins, warming water and – oh yes over-harvesting, which I hadn’t even mentioned yet – the Nature Conservancy found that 96% of kelp forests in northern California have disappeared.

Sea otters are helping by eating as many healthy urchins as they can while human scientists are thinning the population by removing the urchins from the kelp area and barrens. The plan was to give/sell the urchins to restaurants; however, it appears that neither otters nor humans want zombie urchins on their menu. So scientists are working on revitalizing the zombies on urchin farms to bring them up to the standards to be approved both by otters and humans.

Scientists are hopeful but, as always, cautious of this method.

Returning to a movie scenario: The sun begins to set. Scientists in a lab are attempting to save the zombie urchins. They slice open one and it appears to be less empty than the others. The scientists look relieved. Camera pulls back to reveal a never-ending blanket of purple urchins.

New scene: A sailboat off the coast of California. Four friends wearing scuba gear get ready to dive. They carry with them small cameras and underwater notebooks. These are citizen scientists and are the closest thing to protagonists in this story.

Camera follows them into the sea. One diver sees one healthy starfish on a rock and motions for her friends. They take photos, write in their notebooks and give the thumbs up sign. Maybe this is a sign the starfish are coming back.

The camera pans to see the sun streaking through the blades of the kelp forest.

Fade to black.

Okay, I’m an optimist; I like my films to end on a hopeful note. I know it may be one person who starts ringing the danger bell but that can lead to another … and another. I still believe that humans will find a way to work together to save the planet. I have seen it with the citizen scientists I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. What better group of heroes than people from all walks of life working together to help save the world?

FYI – it was citizen scientists who gathered a lot of data for the scientists regarding kelp, urchins and otters.

Again, like in the June 15 article, for anyone interested in more information or would like to join future expeditions and learn how to be a citizen scientist, whether it as a diver or on land, contact Bleu World by going to bleuworld.org.

Our weather will be warmer, too, though hopefully not zombie creating warm.

Today we’ll see patchy fog, again, but a high of 81 degrees is predicted. That warming trend will continue with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s through the week, according to NOAA.