San Onofre restoration project

wow, that is pretty awesome...the fact that the kelp need bear rock to grow is quite interesting...I assumeing it rooted into coral...very innovative to use a non stable base like those balls for the reef...it is quite differetn from the artificials over on this coast where we want them as undesturbed as possible for the small corals to take hold and propagate.

thanks for sharing that articel..it is a rare change to get good eco news

me too, provided they do it right.

it can even turn a company into a much more eco minded one when it works out correctly.

I wonder if any of the "reefballs" from the east coast have been used over there...

Quote from LunkerBuster

...I assumeing it rooted into coral...very innovative to use a non stable base like those balls for the reef...it is quite differetn from the artificials over on this coast where we want them as undesturbed as possible for the small corals to take hold and propagate.
/QUOTE] and [quote='LunkerBuster','http://spearfishing.world/forums/index.php?thread/&postID=38186#post38186']me too, provided they do it right.
I wonder if any of the "reefballs" from the east coast have been used over there...

LB - it's not exactly what you think....:" The rocks, quarried at Catalina Island, are roughly the size of medicine balls and scattered in a single layer on the sand, not piled on top of each other".

these are quarried granitic bolders of "medicine ball size"..... they are not balls - and they are not coral.

"Kay said the goal was to create a dynamic ecosystem in which the boulders are jostled during storms so they can clear out patches of old-growth kelp and create a natural mosaic."

“To get giant kelp coming back generation after generation, there always needs to be bare rock on the reef, and you are only going to get that if you have an unstable reef,” he said.

Of course, we get bare rock from the urchins eating kelp and storms tearing loose kelp..... we have massive kelp beds on rock reefs that don't move.

Long term... not sinking...or getting buried in sand. especially if they move....is a big deal. The 30' depth provides good conditions........ good light, long shore sediment transport is shallower, and still enough turbulence to keep finer sediment moving. Some of the local divers may have noticed that we have a 30' submerged terrace along parts of southern CA. This dates to about 6000 years ago when we had a pause is sea-level rise..... "beach cobbles" are common on the submerged terrace.

The current success of kelp growth comes in a period of unusually cold water summer........ time will tell if the new reef works..... I would have preferred to see a reef with more relief and shelter/ holes.

I hope their design works.

mike

very inormative Mike, thanks...that sounds actually a lot like the reefballs I mentioned, but with smaller holes. thanks for the information

here are what some of the art reef project in FL are using.

http://www.reefball.org/

and some pics

Quote from halibutmike

I would have preferred to see a reef with more relief and shelter/ holes.

I hope their design works.

mike

I agree. My observations over 20+ years of diving the PV Peninsula area, have been that the high relief structures seem to provide a much better habitat, not only for the kelp, but a more healthy biodiversity.

There are numerous stretches of rocky coastal shoreline in the PV Peninsula where the distinctive differences are easily seen. The more relief in the area, the greater the kelp and biodiversity.

I think it is quite easy to get anticipated results within a year, but the tell-tale sign of success will come over at least a 10 year period, in my opinion. The weather cylces will dramatically impact the long-term results.

Since we haven't gotten the really warm water like last year, would we expect to see larger kelp beds this winter and into spring?

Darren

The colder water will definitely produce more kelp. Whether it stays or not is entirely dependant on variable conditions from water temps, swells, upwelling, coastal run-off, etc....

Thanks for posting. Please read the following paper by Dr. Mark Carr (MLPA SAT member). The paper was written pre MLPA and gives a much different view of the importance of giant kelp compared to what the SAT presented during the MLPA process.

http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/p…al.-Bull-Mar-Sci-1990.pdf

I tend to agree that rock structure with lots of nooks and crannies are where we see the biodiversity. Particularly the larger submerged pinnacles.