14 articles
California halibut (Paralichthys californicus) is the kelp edge's great ambush flatfish — sharp-toothed, colour-shifting and built to lunge into midwater.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Cystoseira osmundacea — chain bladder kelp — strings pearl-like floats along California's subtidal rocks. Identification, biology, and why it's no true kelp.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Neobernaya spadicea, the chestnut cowry, is the only cowry native to California — a glossy chestnut shell beneath a blazing orange mantle, grazing the reef by night.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Megathura crenulata, the giant keyhole limpet, cloaks its shell in a living mantle and bleeds blue blood prized by medicine. Identification, diet and reef role.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Lottia gigantea, the owl limpet, farms a private algae garden on Pacific rocks and bulldozes rivals off it. Biology, territory defence and status.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Pseudobatos productus cruises the sandy flats between kelp forests from California to Baja. How to identify it, what it eats, and why its fate splits at the border.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Apostichopus parvimensis vacuums detritus off California reefs day and night, cycling nutrients for the whole kelp forest. Biology, defences and the fishery.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Meet the California moray eel — a nocturnal, crevice-dwelling ambush predator of Pacific kelp reefs, with pharyngeal jaws and a reputation it doesn't deserve.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Identify the coralline sculpin — the small California reef fish whose pink-and-grey skin lets it vanish against crusts of coralline algae.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Red in red algae, green in surfgrass, spotted all over — the spotted kelpfish rewrites its own wardrobe to match the kelp it hides in. How to know one.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Small, barred and easy to overlook, the reef surfperch works the noisy seam where kelp forest meets breaking surf — and gives birth to fully formed young.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Paguristes ulreyi, the furry hermit crab of Pacific kelp forests: how to identify it, why it wears hydroid-covered shells, and its role on the reef floor.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Meet the woolly sculpin, the little California tidepool fish that survives heat, rain-fresh water and hours in the air between tides.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Meet the California sea hare, the kelp forest's purple-inking giant sea slug: what it eats, why it inks, and how it helped decode memory.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·