Background Info
A spiny, globular animal that lives in the sea
What is a sea urchin?
Urchins are eating too many kelp forests
What is the problem?
Smashing urchins with hammers, replanting kelp forests
What some things that have been tried?
Everyone combines efforts. Some divers smash urchins, all the others plant kelp.
What is the first part of my solution?
Sea urchin population levels are in check, the kelp forests are back and more are growing, and the ecosystem is healthy.
What's the best case scenario?
Large algae-covered seaweed that grows significantly on the West Coast
What is kelp?
Kelp protects and feeds many sea animals
Why is this bad for the ecosystem?
Planting kelp in less rocky areas
What has been considered?
We also create traps to kill the urchins.
What is the second part of my solution?
None of this works, the sea urchins are out of control, and kelp is almost extinct.
What's the worst case scenario?
Sea stars, crabs, jellyfish, and many, many other types of sea life.
What depends on kelp to survive?
We rely on kelp to feed and protect many of the sea animals we eat. Also, they intake methane.
Why is this bad for us?
Bringing in lobsters to kill the urchins
What solutions involve other animals?
The traps would lure the urchins inside, then kill them, with some sort of spray, or we could take them out of the water and deal with them there.
How would it work?
It takes quite a while, but the ecosystem is somewhat balanced, and the kelp population aren't great, but good enough to sustain the other creatures.
What's the most likely scenario?
This recent occurrence has resulted in the speedy decrease in kelp population.
What is sea urchin population growth?
The West Coast of the United States, Tasmania, and Australia
Where is this taking place?
All of these seem to function fine, but some at a much slower pace than others
What has worked?
I don't know how much the traps would cost. I imagine that they would be very simple, like nets, so maybe only $200,000 per year. Also, hiring fishermen and divers isn't that big of a deal, only about $150,000 per year, so $350,000 in all.
What's the cost?
Not a ton of people know about this problem, so they might do something that hurts the kelp without knowing it's wrong.
Why couldn't this work?
Sea otters, some crabs, and some eels.
What eats a sea urchin?
A massive spike in sea urchin population
What caused the problem?
Scientists are not only replanting in places that lost kelp, but they are planting new kelp forests in other places.
What are scientists coming up with?
This is plausible, because the level of difficulty of this task is somewhat small, and it is cost-efficient and necessary.
Could this work?
Lots of teams of scientists at aquariums and labs are working really hard to get this done.
What's one reason why this could work?