MONTEREY — Within the last century, the recovery of southern sea otters, the unofficial mascot of Central California, has contributed to the health of California’s underwater forests according to a ...

Restoring underwater kelp forests by culling overgrazing sea urchins would deliver significant financial benefits, a new study has found. Kelp provides shelter and food for countless species while ...

An international team of scientists recently announced a major breakthrough in understanding sea star wasting disease, a mysterious epidemic responsible for decimating sunflower sea stars (*Pycnopodia ...

Researchers examining a century of ocean maps made an exciting discovery linking sea otter populations to kelp forests: Where sea otters thrive, so do these critical underwater habitats. The research ...

In Northern California, purple sea urchins are decimating kelp forests. Though the species of urchin causing problems may vary by region, the damage is the same. NNehring/iStock This article is from ...

The sunflower sea star can be found throughout intertidal and subtidal coastal waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean, from Alaska to at least northern Baja California, Mexico. Sea urchins appear to ...

The weathered UC Davis Marine Laboratory looms in thick fog on the edge of the ocean near Bodega Bay. Inside, an experiment is playing out that gives a badly-needed boost to Northern California’s kelp ...

They're purple, spiky and voracious, and just off the West Coast, there are more of them than you can count. Purple sea urchins have exploded in recent years off California, covering the ocean floor ...

A recent boom in the purple sea urchin population off the southern Oregon Coast appears to have had an indirect and negative impact on the gray whales that usually forage in the region, a new study ...

MONTEREY — Within the last century, the recovery of southern sea otters, the unofficial mascot of Central California, has contributed to the health of California’s underwater forests according to a ...