Kelp died out?
 

A little late to this report but headed out to salt creek out of Dana on Sunday. I was hoping the water would clear up but it was still murky. I tried finding some kelp beds to fish but I couldn’t find any? I was hoping someone else could back me up on this. I fished shallow and deep but couldn’t see/mark and stringers. Wondering if the red tide killed the kelp.A lot of boats out but didn’t see many pulling up fish. Ended up fishing a shallow reef and picking up one keeper sheephead and 15 or so short calicos. All caught on strips of squid. No pictures this time sorry

Did you happen to note the tide or the current at the time? Everywhere I’ve beenIn the Los Angeles area over the past six months has been crazy thick with kelp


Could have just been submerged and laying down

From what i've seen the past few years the kelp at dana has really died off. It used to be super thick off the point. I've heard reports of some kelp off strands/salt creek recently but I haven't fished that area yet this summer.

Surprisingly enough it was low tide at the time. I peddled from 30-70 feet and covered a decent area. Low tide should’ve revealed any kelp that would normally be underwater too

I've been saying this about La Jolla for the last several years. I believe that's the biggest reason the fishing hasn't been what it used to be 3 years ago and before. Little to no kelp, mean no habitat for bait fish, etc.

Kelp in LJ has gotten better; but still hasn't recovered from the devastation of el nino and super warm water.

There’s no kelp south of Dana until you get to San Mateo Rocks south of the Pier, and that’s thin.

There’s a little kelp off Strands and Salt Creek. Pretty slim pickings’ on gamefish. Plenty of calico, sand bass & small sheepshead off Creek.

We were there a few weeks ago with the out going tide. There’s a good patch of kelp just past the boiler rock and out a bit and there are small patches off salt creek.

There are are a variety of fish off the beach. I picked up plenty of juvenile WSB, all sorts of bass and a few short Butts. I missed a good opportunity to pick up either a shark or good WSB. It eventually bit through my line.

I may head north out of the harbor and try again tomorrow.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...1021082738.htm

The kelp will not be coming back any time soon.
Mark F.

I've been able to find the kelp pretty easily in like 40-50' of water off of the beach at Strands/Creek. There's definitely a lot less than in years past. I remember seeing that thick band of kelp out there from the cliffs when I'd go surfing. That was before all those crazy mansions were built there though. It's still there, just a lot less of it. What is there isn't as thick and strong, so when there are stronger currents, it gets pulled sideways and stays below the surface. I know I've been out on the same spot where there was kelp a week before and couldn't see it on the surface. Looking hard enough I could see it underwater bending at like a 45 degree angle in the current. It's there, just requires a little more searching sometimes!

I wonder if all of those guys fishing for Sheepshead know that they are about the only fish around here that eats those Purple Urchins?

The time line on the Science Dayly article on the link, is right on. I noticed if was disappearing in 2016. It used to be so thick out at La Jolla that even in a paddle kayak it was nearly impossible to cut accross the shallows when coming back from the south. As far as a hobie with mirrage drive, it was absolutely impossible. Used to have to go out much further west, just to get around the point, because the kelp went out much further in that area. Now the only kelp is only on the outskirts. If you go inside it's like a burned out forest. There is nothing there. Those who think it coming back are fooling themselves, or haven't fished La Jolla very long. And as far as the bull kelp you don't see almost any, even when the loster boats are there daily during the lobster season and cutting it all up when they drag their traps up. I beleive from fishing almost weekly there that the kelp is easily 75% less then used to be normal, before 2016. If the water continues to stay or get warmer, the fishing will get even worse.

I was reading 76° temps on the way in last week in LJ. Kelp was lighter colored and bleached out. I remember surfing in late 90's and early 00's it was only a short paddle to the beds from the LJ reefs.

I have some good memories of diving LJ kelp back in like 2012 when I was first diving out there and it was so thick you could swim into these huge kelp rooms where the mat on the surface would block out the sun's light from above.

We use to have this conversation about the diminished kelp forest back in the 1980s. Russ Izor would bring kelp stringers from Catalina Island to try to re-plant the Palos Verdes Peninsula. At one time there was a giant Horse Shoe Kelp forest right outside of Los Angeles Harbor. As our population grows, so does the environmental footprint. Kelp beds have died correspondingly and one study found that the only thing that could survive on the sewage at Whites Point outfall was the Sea Urchin.:(

I'm not sure how well that article applies. There's probably some relevance, but I'm sure there's more going on than we know. The article was about bull kelp, primarily in northern California. Ours is Giant Kelp.

There are local beds like San Onofre, most of the artificial reef, and San Mateo Point (and others) that are almost completely devoid of any hint of kelp. No urchins either. Conversely, PV is loaded with kelp, as was the back of Catalina the last time I was there.

Over winter and spring a nice patch sprang up a quarter mile up the line from the boilers off Dana. It even produced a few seabass, but over the last two months it's almost disappeared.

It's all very confusing and frustrating.

There are lots of critters that feed on kelp. Most of them do better in warmer water. The most destructive of these are Sea Urchins. They do not necessarily eat the most, but they concentrate their efforts on the holdfast (root) of the plant. That cuts it away from the rocks and essentially dooms it. There are a few fish (mainly Sheepshead) that feed on Urchins, and some crabs too. Kelp die-offs help to keep Urchins in check, but the Purple Urchins can eat pretty much anything else that grows on the rocks. There used to be dive parties that would go out and smash urchins too. But now, with all of the MLPA area, it is almost pointless to do that. Their eggs spread to the current and cover most of the area between protected areas anyway. It is not a new phenomenon, I studied this cycle back in the early 80s in school. But the variables seem to be mutating a bit. On a positive note, we should see more Trigger Fish and possibly even Sea Otters due to the abundance of Urchins.

I fished Sheephead for a little bit and came to similar conclusions.

- they're way too easy to catch once you figure it out. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, not really sporting in my book.
- they're pretty dumb and don't seem to have any learned defense against fishing

To be clear, I don't have an opinion on what others do. I just won't be fishing for that species anymore myself.

I've fished Dana Point for about seven years now. There used to be kelp forests everywhere to the south and north. The point was a solid carpet, the south was dotted with heavy concentrations. These days there is little kelp, some small areas just past the point in 60 feet and some small areas to the south just past the pipeline in 40-50 feet. The fishing has deteriorated a great deal, it's sad.

What is the kelp situation around newport?