Next Purple Urchin Dive

[Eric Sedletzky]

Hey Urchin Divers,
Just putting out the memo, our next Purple Urchin Removal Dive will be this coming Sunday, Nobember 12th, at Stillwater Cove, Sonoma County.
Meet time is 9:00 AM.
Depending on how many people we get, I want to try something different. I want to send a team over to the right side to begin collecting zombies. On my last dive I found some in the middle if the cove starting to encroach into the weed line where the abalone are seeking refuge. So even though they are somewhat zombiefied I want to start clearing in that area. Those urchins will go for compost.

I also want to send a group over to the left side to continue clearing the uni urchins which are full of roe. Those will go to a guy who has a group that consumes them.

Let me know if you have any questions about gear or anything else.
Please note: this is a removal site only, no culling or smashing is allowed.
Thank you.

 

[happy-diver]

Magnificent!

Please note: this is a removal site only, no culling or smashing is allowed.

Ha a ah ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha

Man I live in a similar latitude to you but in the other hemisphere, man I wish I were there on some of those dives

But not on here for some of the post traumatic urchin what will or will not be discussions ha ha ha ha haha aha ha

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Well, here are the ocean conditions forecast for Sunday. I like the part about 5-10 knot winds but the 8 to 10 ft swell concerns me a bit. That might be a beach pounder. But there is no south swell so that’s good.
SUN
N winds 5 to 10 knots. Wind waves 2 to 3 ft. NW swell 8 to 10 ft.

I’ll post a final yes or no on Saturday.

 

[Boarderguy]

What are zombie urchins?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

What are zombie urchins?

They are ones that have gone into hibernation and contain no roe. They have overgrazed an area and exhausted all their food supply, so they begin to eat rock and burrow holes in the rocks to hunker down in and go “zombie”. They can hibernate this way and stay barely alive for years, then when food comes back they wake up and start grazing again.
My theory as to why there are zombies on the right and not on the left side of the cove is because the sand has created a barrier and isolated the right side urchins away from everything else. However, I saw some of those working their way into the weedline close to the beach on the right side so urchins with no roe can obviously still feed. And if they feed enough they get out of zombie mode and become breeders again. Not good.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Hi Divers,
It looks like the conditions will be pretty big on Sunday:

SUN
DAY winds 5 to 10 knots. Wind waves 2 to 3 ft. NW swell 8 to 10 ft.

The winds look fine but the swell will be too big to dive so I'm calling it off.
Anything over 5' to 7' becomes too hazardous.

So I'm moving the dive to the following Sunday, November 19th.
Please make a note if it and hopefully we'll have better luck then.

Thanks everyone.
Eric

 

[summitdogg]

Hi Divers,
It looks like the conditions will be pretty big on Sunday:

SUN
DAY winds 5 to 10 knots. Wind waves 2 to 3 ft. NW swell 8 to 10 ft.

The winds look fine but the swell will be too big to dive so I'm calling it off.
Anything over 5' to 7' becomes too hazardous.

So I'm moving the dive to the following Sunday, November 19th.
Please make a note if it and hopefully we'll have better luck then.

Thanks everyone.
Eric

I’m planning on joining, thx again for organizing!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I’m planning on joining, thx again for organizing!

Dude, you’re a champ!
I can’t get a Sunday report until tomorrow, but Sat looks like a mixed swell, a little healthy on the south (2-3 ft) which may affect the cove since the beach points almost due south. But we’ll see. At least there’s not a monster NW like last Sunday.
Probably not much run off from this last rain either, a non issue.

 

[tensory]

Hi Eric, 2 friends and I are interested in participating. What time of year do you do these dives? From post history, it looks like fall/winter? I messaged you on IG, but decided I should probably join this forum.