Sierra: In the warming waters of the Pacific Ocean, urchins crowd out a legacy ecosystem June. 2022
Scuba Diving: Tackling kelp forest degradation through research and grassroots advocacy. May 2022
KION-TV: After a round of early-morning April showers, the sky was beginning to clear at the Monterey Wharf while a group of divers boarded the Beachwaver II for a special mission. May 2022
Frontiers in Marine Science: "Kelp and macroalgal forests provide the ecological foundations of many temperate rocky reef ecosystems, but have regionally declined, often due to sea urchin overgrazing and the formation of urchin barrens." Feb. 2022
Divers Alert Network: For more than five years, divers and scientists along the U.S. West Coast have watched a disaster play out before their eyes. April 2021
Inside Climate News: When ocean heat waves and a sea star disease devastated kelp forests that are critical to sea life and the California urchin fishing industry, sea otters came to the rescue." March, 2021
Monterey County Weekly: "Over the last eight years, Monterey County has experienced significant deforestation of its own, and as Keith Rootsaert kills his motor and drifts above the rubble, he acknowledges the challenges of addressing a silent and mostly invisible crisis." July, 2021
rtlnieuws: In English with Dutch subtitles. A disaster is unfolding off the west coast of America. 90 percent of the seaweed is dying there. Increasingly warmer seawater is causing an enormous growth in the number of sea urchins that eat the plants. May 2021
Divers Alert Network: For more than five years, divers and scientists along the U.S. West Coast have watched a disaster play out before their eyes. April 2021
Reef Check News: "Kelp forest restoration along the Central Coast of California is underway with rapidly developing progress!" April 2021
Monterey Herald: "Monterey Bay Area divers are undergoing training to help battle a type of urchin that is decimating kelp forests critical to several marine wildlife species" April 2021
Monterey County NOW: "Keith Rootsaert has been diving in Monterey Bay since the 1980s. By the early 2010s, he began noticing the decimation of the bay’s giant kelp forests." March 2021
Grist: ‘Zombie’ urchins have obliterated West Coast kelp forests. Can they be stopped?" Sept. 2021
Calif. Diving News: "Anyone who has dived California’s reefs in recent years, or has read this magazine or the mainstream news media is aware of the unprecedented changes our local reefs are experiencing." May 2019
KSBW/NBC News: Crews are working on a plan to clear invasive sea urchins from California’s Monterey Bay." May 2019
KSBW/NBC News: "Divers will take the next two weekends to do this. They expect to see results in about a month." June 2019
Forbes: Scuba divers along the California coast have been watching the kelp forests steadily disappear for years, and everyone is pointing fingers at the purple sea urchins’ voracious appetite for the algae." Dec. 2019
KSBW Action News 8: "The Monterey Bay is world renowned for its giant kelp forests. But scientists are seeing a huge increase in sea urchins and a decline in kelp." Feb 2018
Monterey County Weekly: "All around the Monterey Peninsula, and off of much of the California coast, the marine ecosystem has changed dramatically in the last few years: Kelp forests are being replaced by purple sea urchins." 2018
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