News

Whales searching for food near California during recent marine heat events became ensnared in fishing gear.

Read more

CMSI is so proud of our Associate Director for Academic Programs, Dr. Anne Todgham, for being a new Chancellor’s Fellow.

Read more in UC Davis Dateline

Off the Northern California coast, there is a crisis beneath the waves. The kelp forest – seaweed that provided habitat and food for much of life in the ocean – is gone, wiped out by an exploding population of purple sea urchins.

Read more

Urchinomics and its partner, the UC Davis' Bodega Marine Laboratory, are running a trial designed to develop methods for ranching purple sea urchins for profit, while at the same time addressing the consequences of a nasty ecological chain reaction.

Read more

Wildlife conservation sometimes involves eating fewer animal products. But to save California’s kelp forest, a new dish is being added to the menu: purple sea urchin. 

Read more 

UC Davis project scientist Kristin Aquilino directs the Bodega Marine Laboratory's white abalone captive breeding program. In this video, she discusses the work she and her colleagues are doing to bring the endangered species back from the brink of extinction. This week marks the first time captive bred white abalone will be released to the ocean in hopes of saving the species.

Envision California’s lush forests from San Francisco to the Oregon border. Now imagine that 90 percent of those forests disappear within two years. Laura Rogers-Bennett, senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, says that’s exactly what happened to underwater kelp forests off Northern California’s coastline from 2014-16.

Read more & listen to the piece on Science Friday

A career dedicated to mollusks isn’t always easy. Sometimes progress can occur at a snail’s pace. But a team of scientists are close to reaching a significant milestone in their efforts to bring white abalone — a species of sea snail — back from the brink of extinction.

Read more

In a Changing Ocean, Giant Kelp’s Reproductive Success Depends on Where It’s From

When a marine heat wave hit California’s coast in 2014, it brought ocean temperatures that were high for Northern California but fairly normal for a Southern California summer. Much of the giant kelp in the north died in the heat wave, while southern populations survived.

UC Davis News

My job is to write about the wonders and challenges of our coast and oceans, but I’ll admit: Before this story, I had no idea what an abalone looked like...

Read more