LAGUNA BEACH – On a recent morning, Nancy Caruso rolled backward – Jacques Cousteau-style – off a fishing boat, splashing into the ocean water 100 yards from the shoreline.
Carrying a clipboard, Caruso, a marine biologist, surveyed 1,000 square meters of a quarter-mile-sized reef searching for abalone. For an hour she swam against surge through low visibility in 58 degree water to collect data on invertebrates such as starfish, crabs, anemones and algae. She mapped the reef, making note of cracks and crevices.
She found randomly spread teenaged abalone clinging to rocks. Abalone need to be within three feet of each other to reproduce. They forage on kelp and clean the ocean floor of dead kelp debris. Green abalone is a federally listed species of interest and is critical to the marine ecosystem. Ocean experts like Caruso worldwide are working to keep it thriving. Caruso’s restoration project focuses on Southern California, where it is illegal to remove abalone from the ocean.
On Saturday, Caruso will hold the fourth annual Kelpfest at Main Beach in Laguna Beach to keep people informed of the ocean’s biodiversity and the reason the ocean environment, including abalone and kelp, needs to be preserved.
The reef off Laguna Beach is a control site where abalone and kelp thrive. Caruso is using it as a model for a reef off Newport Beach where she will restock abalone thanks to a permit she acquired from California Department of Fish and Wildlife after a three year effort.
Since 1997, it is illegal to take and sell abalone from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco south to the Mexican border. Illegally taking abalone can mean up to a year in jail, fines in the thousands of dollars, permanent loss of fishing licenses and confiscation of fishing and diving gear.
Caruso’s abalone are grown by students studying marine biology at University High in Irvine, Edison High in Huntington Beach and Southgate Middle School in Los Angeles County. Abalone are grown in small classroom nurseries and students mix their own ocean water. The project at the schools is designed by Caruso, who works with teachers to create awareness among students of the threatened species and vulnerability of the ocean’s ecosystem.
Caruso started Get Inspired, a nonprofit group centered on ocean restoration. The abalone program began a year ago with 11 schools that included Dana Hills in Dana Point, Thurston Middle School in Laguna Beach and Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita.
THE GOAL
The abalone project is modeled after a successful kelp restoration project Caruso launched with 37 Orange County schools in 2002. Schools in the kelp project included Dana Hills, Thurston Middle School, St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, Warner Middle School in Westminster and Pacifica High School in Garden Grove. In the project, students grew kelp attached to tiles. Divers planted tens of thousands of the quarter-inch plants into five acres of underwater habitat off Laguna Beach and Newport Beach. By 2009, the kelp was lush and thriving for the first time in 30 years.
“Before this there were no kelp beds,” Caruso said. “They were depleted by human-caused factors. First, it was extinction of the otter, overfishing of lobster and sheephead and urban runoff. Lastly, there was an El Nino event in 1998. Everything disappeared after that. Now there’s more kelp in Orange County than there’s been in 30 years.”
The success of the kelp project led to Caruso founding the first Kelpfest at Main Beach in Laguna in 2010.
“All of a sudden our kelp was growing and we thought we’d have a party,” she said. “Laguna had kelp washing on the beach, which it hadn’t had in 25 years. Residents were upset because they had to pay for it to be removed. We started Kelpfest to foster an appreciation for kelp.”
BLACK MARKET, POACHING
After the success of kelp restoration, Caruso spent three years getting permits from the state agency to replenish abalone. The tiny marine gastropod is related to the snail and has a history of being hunted in California.
From the 1800s until 1997, abalone hunters searched reefs in Southern California for the marine animal. When scuba diving became popular, abalone harvests reached 1,440 per day per diver, Caruso said. Harvesting went to almost 3 million pounds in 1970.
In 1997, state wardens cracked down on abalone fishermen. Left alone, abalone began returning, and game wardens are now seeing more poaching violations, said Assistant Chief Dan Sforza, who oversees the Southern California region for the Fish and Wildlife agency.
A huge black market trade remains where abalone sells for $80 a pound. Last week, two Southern California men pleaded no contest in Los Angeles Superior Court to a Fish and Game code fine for taking abalone. They received three years probation, will pay $2,405 in fines in addition to $1,000 to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. They were also forced to forfeit their dive and fishing gear.
In January, state lifeguards at Crystal Cove State Beach stopped two fishermen who carried abalone out of the sea in their game bags. When lifeguards asked the fishermen what they had, they said nothing and pointed to the big, iridescent shells. They had no idea that the shells were abalone and were illegal to take, Caruso said.
“The awareness is just not there,” Caruso said.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
It’s that lack of knowledge that inspired Katherine Levensailor, a science teacher at University High, to apply for grant funding so she could participate in Caruso’s program.
Levensailor, who last year received the Irvine Unified School District “Teacher of Promise” award, collects kelp at the beach so her students have food for the abalone they are raising in the Irvine school classroom. She applied for grant funding to pay for the two abalone the students are studying.
“For these guys it makes it real, because they learn they can make a difference,” she said. “I hope they learn that no matter how small or insignificant, it plays a role in the greater picture of our ecosystem. This generation is very aware. They want to make a difference.”
Eli Dolati, 16, is one of several students in Levensailor’s class taking care of the two abalone. Each weekend she and her family go to Aliso Creek Beach in Laguna Beach.
Since she’s been learning about the abalone, she has a new level of appreciation of marine life. Where she once tossed litter on the ground, she now wouldn’t think of doing it.
“I feel like I’m helping out because I don’t want them to go extinct,” she said. “Every animal is an important part of the ecosystem. If one goes extinct, multiple numbers of animals would be threatened. This class has made me much more aware. I never knew about the vast number of animals in the sand and on shore. I just knew about crabs and sharks. Now I appreciate wildlife and the environment more.”
Contact the writer: 949-492-5152 or eritchie@ocregister.com or twitter.com/lagunaini
