Mendocino Barren Reversal

Northern California’s bull kelp forests collapsed after the 2014–2016 marine heatwave and the loss of sunflower sea stars let purple urchins run the reefs. Mendocino was Tidewright’s first program outside Australia — and its hardest.

The model here is deliberately two-handed. Partner urchin ranchers clear and ranch the barrens while Drifter vessels lay spore-seeded lines in the cleared corridors, so the kelp gets a season’s head start and the urchin fishery gets something worth catching again.

Three seasons in, the corridors are holding their own between urchin raids, and the co-op’s ranched uni is selling into restaurants that once served barrens country as a cautionary tale.