Andy Vargas has always felt a deep connection to the ocean. As a child he remembers diving on family vacations in places like Mexico and Hawaii. But as he got older, the water became his safe space, away from the world above. “It was a really cold December afternoon,” recalls Vargas. He was diving on a date with an ex-boyfriend when he had his first experience with the kelp.
“I just fell in love with [the forests] because it seemed like the fish were gravitating towards it and it seemed like all of this life was revolving around and dwelling in this gorgeous kelp.”
Kelp deforestation has affected areas all over the world due to climate change and warmer waters, but here in California, there’s another culprit. Vargas’s oceanic home is threatened by a villainous creature that might not look like an animal at all. Forget sharks; sea urchins are the real monsters of the sea. They’re those spiky purple balls that are often mistaken for plants in tidepools and at most aquariums. They’re silent and mostly motionless in their exhibits, but in the wild, they’re deadly.
California’s purple sea urchin population has grown more than 10 thousand percent in recent years. Although they’re native to the West Coast, they have an invasive nature due to their booming numbers— they’ve even begun to outnumber the kelp that they feed off of. As urchins devour kelp, they continue to drive their number one source of food towards endangerment. And once there’s no more kelp for them to eat, they will begin to die off as well. Vargas compared these urchins to goats, who graze their way through forests until there's nothing left.
But now that undersea forest is at risk. Only 5% of California’s kelp remains.
Vargas has been diving along California’s southern coast for almost a decade, but when he puts on his tail, he’s more than your average diver. He’s easy to spot along the shore in his bright blue and green neoprene tail, but under the water, he’s just one of the fish. Or more accurately, he’s a self-proclaimed merman.
There may be an aspiring—and surprising—new climate hero along California’s coast and it’s one you might not expect. Mermaids — or at least a community of humans who call themselves mermaids — want to protect our oceans from the dangers that lie within. No, this isn’t a fairytale.
Clad in vibrant neoprene tails and seashell bras, this community of mermaids, mermen and, in modern day, mer-they, put on performances, teach children how to swim and, perhaps most importantly, work to keep waterways clean. They might not live in the water, but to many of them, the ocean is their second home. “It's a whole [self-] identifying community of people that do this for a living and advocate for local conservation for nature,” said Ashley Rastad, who co-founded The California Mermaid Convention, an annual gathering and celebration of mermaid culture.
The Convention gathers mermaids from all across California to coach, collaborate and conserve. The convention began in San Francisco’s Bay Area, but has participants from Sacramento to San Diego, where groups gather for beach cleanups both in and out of the water.
Right now, there’s not enough kelp off of California’s coast to feed all of the urchins, but this hasn’t been enough to combat their overpopulation. They need a predator to limit their numbers and restore balance to their ecosystem. Mythologically, mermaids were hunted by fishermen. Now, they might become the hunter.
Natural predators to the purple urchins include sea otters and sea stars, but warming temperatures have driven these species out of the coastal waters. One species in particular, the sunflower sea star — often referred to as a the sunflower starfish — is nearly extinct in California. Much like urchins, these creatures look harmless in a fish tank, but according to Laura Rink, the associate aquarium director of operations at Heal the Bay Aquarium in Santa Monica, they’re ferocious predators.
The aquarium only has one sunflower sea star and Rink says that due to dwindling numbers, they’re lucky to have obtained it. This carnivore feeds on a number of creatures such as crustaceans, sand dollars and clams, but the aquarium staff keeps it in a separate tank from the urchins so that it doesn’t feast on its neighbors. In the wild, the sunflower sea star might ensure a balanced ecosystem and a more limited number of destructive purple sea urchins. But as this endangered sea star creeps towards extinction, a new predator is swimming in.
People with Hammers
Humans are removing urchins from their habitat, covering them in lye and even smashing them with hammers. But more recently, mermaids have taken the initiative. As Vargas explained, there was a time when the ecosystem kept itself in check, but because humans are causing global warming, which in turn contributes to the sea urchin invasion, the problem has become so massive that the only way to stop it is through human intervention.
As a merman, Vargas feels a responsibility to protect the kelp forests and play a role in safely removing urchins. He also wants to share his passion with other people. He’s organized multiple beach cleanups throughout Southern California to bring mermaids together on the shore, but his next project will get them in the water. Vargas is working on Help Kelp, a project sponsored by The Professional Association of Diving Instructors, that would get other mermaids in the water to remove the urchins and eventually, propagate more kelp.
But his project is just one of many proposed solutions. Certain solutions, such as lye-dumping and urchin-smashing have caused more harm than good. Lye can kill everything in an area, not just the urchins. When crushed, urchin spikes release toxins that damage kelp.
One of the leading solutions for population control is to just eat them. Sea urchin meat —the yellow guts that are exposed when they’re crushed— is called uni, and it’s a delicacy in the sushi industry. But despite an increased number of urchins, many of them don’t have enough meat on them for commercial fishing. According to Jenna Segal, Associate Director of Programs at Heal the Bay Aquarium, many of the urchins along California’s coast are starving because they’ve already eaten up all of the kelp in their area. “Because there is no food around them, they're starving,” said Segal “So the uni industry said, ‘we can't do anything with these either.’” She also noted that when populations are under control, urchins play an important role in keeping the kelp forests in check, so a complete elimination of this species would completely disrupt their habitat. It could also result in the extinction of the endangered sunflower sea star, which eats urchins for survival.
The real solution to the urchin problem, as Vargas explained, is to find a sweet spot between removing them and completely wiping them out. We do need some urchins, but currently, there’s just too many.
Vargas’s project, Help Kelp, carefully considers the delicate underwater ecosystem because he plans to remove the urchins, smash them and release their toxins and then place them back into the water so that their bodies can be eaten and benefit other organisms.
But because the boom in urchin populations hasn’t greatly affected areas in Southern California yet, Vargas plans on using his large social media presence as a way to recruit volunteers for existing kelp restoration projects. He wants to work with local conservation groups such as The Bay Foundation, who is working on removing urchins off the coast of Palos Verdes.
As the urchin surge creeps its way down the coast— it’s beginning to affect kelp forests in Santa Barbara, Palos Verdes and soon, Laguna Beach— Help Kelp will continue to gather mermaids who want to protect their ocean home. For now, it’s mermaid vs urchin. Let the games begin.