Restoring Southern California’s urban canyons helps protect ecosystems, wildlife, and open space for urban residents. Restored, native canyons could also be crucial in making communities more resilient to the impacts and risks of climate change, according to a new report led by Theresa Talley, a California Sea Grant extension specialist based at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Sabrina Beyer, a PhD student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Gabriel Englander, a PhD student at UC Berkeley, have been awarded NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Sea Grant Fellowships.

Underneath the Municipal Wharf II in Monterey Bay, hundreds of abalone—large sea snails— grow in suspended cages in an open water farm. The abalone, cultivated by the Monterey Abalone Company, are fed local, hand-harvested giant kelp once a week, until they grow big enough to be sold to restaurants and local seafood connoisseurs.

Climate change is projected to increase the risk of drought, heat extremes, and wildfires in California through 2100. But at the same time, sea-level rise and changing precipitation patterns could increase the risk of floods and landslides, according to the Fourth California Climate Change Assessment.

Water quality conditions in some parts of Morro Bay may be the key factor preventing eelgrass recovery after a recent decline, according to a new study published in the journal Estuarine, Coastal, and Shelf Science.

At its October 25, 2018 meeting, the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) unanimously approved 24 research projects totaling $6 million in funding through the Proposition 84 Competitive Grants Program. The projects support state priorities focused on stewardship and management of California’s ocean and coastal resources in the areas of: ocean acidification and hypoxia; sustainable fisheries and aquaculture; sea-level rise adaptation and coastal resilience; coastal sediment management; marine pollution; and marine renewable energy.

When the carbon dioxide from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, dissolves into ocean water, it raises the acidity of the water. Also, as global temperatures rise, the oxygen available in the water decreases. These changes act like alarm bells that tell marine life to evacuate to a safe space. Researchers are studying whether that safe space could be the climate refugia created by kelp forests. There, life could escape the potentially harmful waters that surround them.

Amid the difficult days of the coronavirus pandemic, as Fort Bragg’s tourism-centric economy took a sudden hit, a group of locals came up with an idea for a brighter future. This small town of 7,000 sits along Northern California’s rugged coastline, a location that has yielded a long and intimate relationship with the ocean. That relationship, locals realized, could be the key to the city’s future, too: Smart investments might bring sustainable, ocean-focused industries to town.