Advocating for Healthy Kelp Forests
By Aden Ho ‘25Oregon Kelp Alliance unites researchers, tribal members, urchin divers, chefs, and more, to advocate for healthy kelp forests.
Over-grazing by purple sea urchins devastates Oregon kelp beds, and resulting "urchin barrens" yield starved, low-value urchins. Our strategy was to enhance starved urchin quality in tanks by assessing the impact of different feeds on gonadal (uni) quality and analyzing the economic viability of scaled urchin mariculture.
This was quite a unique opportunity to apply my majors to promote restoration/conservation and potentially create economic opportunity. I am grateful for a reflective & novel summer, and will definitely be back to OR. Considering the shocks, spines, and sperm my body endured–I would love to learn more about mariculture from other angles.
Internship funded by the Williams Family Internship Fund.