Tag Archives: kelp

On an overcast Tuesday in July, divers Mitch Johnson and Sean Taylor shimmy into their wetsuits on the back of the R/V Xenarcha, a 28ft boat floating off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes, south of Los Angeles. Behind them, the clear waters of the Pacific are dotted with a forest of army-green strands, waving like mermaid hair underwater. We …

Sea urchins don’t understand predators the way we do. They have no brains, no hearts – just raw instinct. When a sunflower sea star approaches, they don’t need complex reasoning to sense danger – they simply steer clear. This is the conclusion of a new study that examined how sunflower sea stars affect sea urchin behavior. The research was conducted …