What Is That Happening Right off Our Coast

“What Is That Happening Right off Our Coast,” a program sponsored by AltaSea on July 29 featured leading marine scientists and biologists Michelle Horeczko of the Department of Fish and Game and Linda Chilton representing Sea Grant.

They both expressed, to a crowd of more than 100, an urgency to act on the impacts of climate change, marine pollution, and overfishing.

Horeczko led off “We supervise marine fisheries; both commercial and sport fishing, to ensure a sustainable take. Working with NOAA [or National Oceanographic and Aerospace Administration] we manage fisheries and Marine Protected Areas [or MPA] out to 200 miles…Working with AltaSea and our research ship Garibaldi, from San Diego to the Channel Islands, we mentor students, run a dive program, carry out educational activities and outreach such as this one today.” 

She was asked a question about Domoic Acid, produced by a dinoflagellate that becomes prevalent in warmer waters and with nutrient (fertilizer) runoff.  

“A concentrated toxin occurs when marine organisms eat other organisms that have fed upon this organism, and thus it is transmitted up the food web to fish, marine mammals and even humans.” 

This causes a nerve disorder, currently seen in Santa Barbara offshore. Shellfish should not be consumed when there is an outbreak, usually in the Fall.

Chilton is a long-time science figure in marine science in the South Bay. For many years she worked at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, and now she leads Sea Grant at USC. 

“We all have an influence on each other and the environments…and this is especially true with the establishment of the Marine Protected Areas. We analyze the impact of climate change (ocean temperature, acidification, oxygen) on marine organisms that are diving deeper, leaving the intertidal zone but fortunately a greater diversity and quantity of marine organisms exist in the MPA’s.” 

One of the projects that she explained was the “restoration of white and black abalone populations which are on the endangered species list.”

Questions during the discussion focused on the impact of climate change on the local marine ecosystem, the massive illegal dumping of DDT chemical byproducts off the Palos Verdes coast by Montrose Chemical Corporation and the proliferation of sea urchins after sea otters (their main predator) were hunted to extinction in the Southern California bight, a 692-kilometer-long stretch of curved coastline that runs along the west coast of the United States and Mexico.