Life Stages of the Purple Sea Urchin

Friday, June 13, 2025
12:00-4:00 PM
Discovery Center Museum
Noyo Center for Marine Science
338 N. Main Street
Fort Bragg

Kick off urchin fest celebrations with the Noyo Center, and learn about the beginning life stages of purple sea urchins.

Noyo Center researcher Lauren Nutt displays the stunning microscopic life stages of purple sea urchins. Learn how purple sea urchins reproduce, develop, and gain an understanding of how these resilient creatures have created a purple explosion along the California coast.

Domoic Acid Toxicity in California Sea Lions

Guest Presenter: Dr. Cara Field
Director of Conservation Medicine
The Marine Mammal Center

In 1998, The Marine Mammal Center diagnosed the first case of domoic acid toxicosis in marine mammals. This condition is caused by harmful algal blooms, sometimes referred to as “red tides.”

Domoic acid is produced during certain harmful algal bloom events by a type of algae called Pseudo-nitzschia australis. This neurotoxin accumulates in small fish, like sardines and anchovies, which are then eaten by marine mammals like sea lions in large quantities.

Domoic acid attacks the brain and the heart causing seizures and heart failure. If left untreated, it usually causes permanent brain damage. The toxin will naturally flush from an animal’s system over time, but sea lions repeatedly exposed to the toxin will suffer longer-lasting and more serious effects.

Dr. Field is a certified Diplomate in the American College of Zoological Medicine, and one of only 35 Diplomates with the specialty of aquatic animal medicine. Additionally, in 2024, she was elected president of the International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine. Dr. Field currently serves as an advisor for multiple aquatic animal conservation working groups.

There is no fee for our science talk presentations, but your donations help to support the resources it takes to bring you these programs and speakers.

Explore the Secret World of Urchins

Saturday, May 3, 2025
12-3 PM
Discovery Center Science Museum
338 N. Main St., Fort Bragg

Join Noyo Center scientist Lauren Nutt and  Amanda Meriwether from The Exploratorium for a glimpse into the unseen life of urchins. As part of their "Seeing Scientifically" project, Noyo Center and The Exploratorium are using innovative techniques to reveal the hidden beauty and processes of these fascinating creatures. Come witness remarkable imagery captured at the field station and learn how we're making the invisible visible.

There is no fee for our science presentations, but your donations help to support the resources it takes to bring you these programs and speakers.

Seals Beside Us:
Harbor Seals and Other Inhabitants of the
Point Arena Lighthouse and Stornetta Public Lands

Guest Presenters: Sara Bogard & Sarah Grimes

If you missed the April in-person presentation with Sara Bogard on her field work with harbor seals, join us for this program when she will be joined by Sarah Grimes, Noyo Center’s Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator.

This presentation is a visual journey and stories of the Harbor Seals and other inhabitants that reside, give birth and migrate through the Point Arena Lighthouse and Stornetta Public Lands. They also explore other stories about the spring pupping season in the rookeries in the area, and the valuable marine mammal stranding work conducted along the Mendocino Coast.

There is no fee for our science talk presentations, but your donations help to support the resources it takes to bring you these programs and speakers.

Noyo Center Talks Science
with Underwater Photographer Patrick Webster

Kelps of the World

Originally Broadcast on Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Pat Webster is a marine media monkey politely pushing pixels and mild-mannered alter ego to @undewaterpat. Born and raised a missionary kid in the French Alps and the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden, he found his way into kelp forest evangelism via UC Santa Cruz’s scientific diving program and frequent visits to his backyard kelp kathedrals in Monterey Bay, California. Pat’s underwater photography and debilitating word asso-sea-ocean syndrome have buoyed him along his career in marine science education working with The Seymour Marine Discovery Center, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic, The Nature Conservancy, SCUBA Diving Magazine and more. Pat’s favorite thing is to help connect his fellow Earthlings with the Inner Space of Planet Ocean, all with a little kelp from our fronds.

Mendocino Coast Audubon Society presents
“Meet our African Penguins”

Guest Presenter:
Aimee Greenebaum, Monterey Bay Aquarium

Recorded on Monday, January 13th, 2025 at 7:00pm 

Location:
Noyo Center Marine Field Station

Get a behind the scenes look at the African penguin colony at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We will learn about some of the drama that happens between pairs -- romance, break ups, and even learn a little about their chick rearing. This is a unique opportunity to learn about the individual birds in a way that isn't possible by visiting them at the aquarium.

Aimee Greenebaum is the Curator of Aviculture at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She received a Bachelor of Science in wildlife biology from Kansas State University. She has been working with birds for over 24 years and has been with the Monterey Bay Aquarium for almost 21 years. She manages the Aquarium’s avian exhibits, which currently include the shorebirds, Common murres, Tufted puffins, African penguins, and Laysan Albatross. Aimee is the Co-Chair for the Avian Scientific Advisory Group (ASAG) and steering committee member for Charadriiformes Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) for AZA accredited Zoos and Aquariums.   

What Washed Ashore in 2024

Sarah Grimes, Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for Noyo Center for Marine Science, gives us a report of WHAT and WHO has washed Ashore in 2024.

There is no fee for our science talks, although your donations support our programming, and the costs associated with bringing you these presentations.

Thank you for your support! DONATE here.

Ocean Science Center
Design Presentation

We have completed a new design phase for the Ocean Science Center on the Noyo Headlands and would like to get input from the community on the basic designs and landscape restoration plans.

If you missed the in-person presentation in Fort Bragg please join us virtually, along with EHDD Architecture and SCAPE Landscape Architecture, to learn more about this exciting project and the vision for the future of marine science on the Mendocino Coast.

If you have comments about the designs presented in this program please share them with us by EMAIL. Thanks for your interest and support!

Noyo Center Talks Science
with Sunflower Star Labs

Our guest presenters for this program are Lauren Schiebelhut, Ashley Kidd, and Andrew Kim from Sunflower Star Laboratory (SSL), a Monterey-based non-profit committed to researching and developing reliable and scalable aquaculture methods for sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) conservation and reintroduction.

Learn more about the program and the scientists:

Watch a recording of the program:

You can help scientists studying the health and recovery of sunflower stars and other sea stars affected by wasting syndrome by reporting your observations. MARINe and iNaturalist are great ways to do that. Visit the links below to learn more about how you can participate.

Sharktober: Celebrating Sharks of the Northeast Pacific
Original Broadcast: 10/23/24

Guest Presenter: David McGuire, MEH, Director Shark Stewards, Founder Shark Stewards 

A marine biologist and shark advocate, David McGuire is the founder of the Ocean Health and Shark Conservation nonprofit Shark Stewards dedicated to saving sharks and protecting critical marine habitat. As a sailing captain, dive master and filmmaker, David has explored the world ocean on numerous sailing voyages producing media with an emphasis on sharks and ocean awareness. 

Learn more about David’s work HERE. 

Ocean Science Center Design Presentation
Friday, October 18
1-4PM; presentation will begin at 2PM

We have completed a new design phase for the Ocean Science Center on the Noyo Headlands and would like to get input from the community on the basic designs and landscape restoration plans.

Join us along with EHDD Architecture and SCAPE Landscape Architecture to learn more about this exciting project and the vision for the future of marine science on the Mendocino Coast.

We look forward to seeing you!

qʰamosʼ wehke in Kashia Territory

In this program Noyo Center and Sea Otter Savvy presented a special Sea Otter Awareness Week We Were Here sea otter event featuring the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians.

In this presentation you will hear information about the Kashia Pomo people’s history and cultural relationships with sea otters. We will discuss the impact of the Russian and American Fur Trade on the sea otter population in Kashia territory, and the lasting impact of the lack of coastal access on the Kashia community. We will also delve into the current, ongoing projects that collectively support sea otter reintroduction including abalone aquaculture, sea urchin removal, 3D tidal monitoring, and scuba diving/kelp recovery. The Kashia people have a deep connection to the ocean, restoring tribal communities access to their land benefits not only the tribes, but the natural environment and resources surrounding us all.

Seagrass: A Climate Change Solution

Guest Presenter: Elisabeth H. Sellinger
Dr. Tessa Hill | Ocean Climate Lab
UC Davis Earth and Planetary Sciences

We've known for a while that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels warms our climate. To prevent severe events, we need to stop producing CO2 and remove some of it. Natural climate solutions are here to help, enhancing what the Earth does naturally. Trees and land plants sequester carbon through photosynthesis, but did you know the ocean is a major carbon sink too? About half of this carbon is stored in blue carbon coastal ecosystems like seagrasses. These amazing marine plants, found on coasts worldwide except Antarctica, store carbon in their plant matter and sediments for hundreds of years. Plus, they offer multiple co-benefits like coastal protection, enhancing biodiversity, and stabilizing sediments. Come join us to learn about the importance of seagrass, fun coastal critters, and positive climate change solutions!

Elisabeth Sellinger is Ph.D. student at the University of California Davis in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department and the Bodega Marine Laboratory. She works with Dr. Tessa Hill on seagrass carbon storage along the California coast, specifically looking at the impacts of restoration. Elisabeth is collaborating with Greater Farallones and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary on both seagrass research and outreach/education.

Learn more about Elisabeth’s work HERE. 

What's Washed In: Seabirds and Citizen Science
This was an in-person Science Talk Presentation at the Noyo Center Marine Field Station and was not recorded.

Presentation begins at 6PM
Doors open at 5:30 PM with beer and wine available for purchase
There is no fee for this presentation, but a suggested donation of $10 helps us with the costs associated with continuing to bring you these programs. Thank you for your support.

Guest Presenter: Julia K. Parrish

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of the Environment at the University of Washington

The Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) has been monitoring the California (and Oregon, Washington, and Alaska) coastlines for over two decades, working with local citizens to track the patterns of seabird mortality on local beaches. Hands-on citizen science offers an opportunity to collect environmental data over stretches of space and time that no research lab could hope to attain on its own. It also provides the opportunity for program participants and partners to learn about natural history at multiple scales: from seasonal shifts in the distribution of local species to dramatic changes in the ecosystem. In this presentation, we will examine the baseline patterns of beached bird abundance and look at what we have discovered thanks to 24 years of volunteers doing surveys.

Julia K. Parrish is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of the Environment at the University of Washington, and a Lowell A. and Frankie L. Wakefield Professor of Ocean Fishery Sciences. She is a marine biologist, a conservation biologist, and a specialist in animal aggregation. For more than 30 years, Julia has conducted research on seabirds, focused on the natural and human-caused factors causing population decline. Julia is also the Executive Director of the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST), a west-coast citizen science program involving hundreds of participants collecting monthly data on the identity and abundance of beach-cast birds and marine debris, with the goal of creating the definitive baseline against which the impacts of any near-shore catastrophe could be measured.

Sea Urchin Ceramics:
Art, Science and Conservation

Guest Presenter: Leila Al-hemali 

Explore the intersectional world of art, science and conservation in a talk hosted by ceramicist and software engineer Leila Al-Hemali. In this session, Leila will share her journey that led her to discover innovative ways to use sea urchins in ceramics to help mitigate the loss of kelp forests and discuss the overlaps between glaze chemistry and ocean chemistry. In a world where people are encouraged to specialize, Leila will discuss the need for multi-disciplinary thinkers and cross-concept collaboration to find novel climate solutions.

Leila came to ceramics in 2019 with a background in environmental sciences. When she took her first ceramics class, clay became a true obsession. She grew up in Florida and, as an avid diver, considered the California kelp forests a bucket-list dive. When she learned about the staggering rate of kelp forest loss, Leila had the idea to try to use the urchin bodies as a replacement for commercially mined calcium carbonate. And, to her surprise, it worked! Leila daylights as a software engineer, working for a small company building interactive wildfire simulations in Santa Fe, New Mexico, often dreaming of the wide, gracious expanse of the Pacific Ocean from her home office. 

Open Ocean Ecology: Shaping the Life History Evolution in Long-lived Animals

Guest Presenter: Roxanne Beltran
UCSC Researcher

In this presentation, Roxanne will discuss how her elephant seal research has shown that annual cycle timing, ocean conditions, and behavioral strategies have critical consequences for survival and reproductive success in large marine vertebrates.

Roxanne Beltran is interested in understanding how animal behavior and physiology underlie the ecological and evolutionary patterns we see in nature. Her research group uses bio-loggers and mark-recapture to inform interdisciplinary theory, including navigation cues, predator-prey landscapes, cryptic species distributions, and marine ecosystem resource pulses, using elephant seals as a model system. Roxanne is a Packard Fellow in Science and Engineering, a Beckman Young Investigator, and author of the children’s book, “A Seal Named Patches”. She is passionate about inclusion of marginalized communities in research, and co-founded Building a Better Fieldwork Future program which is working to make field settings safer and more equitable for young field scientists.

Noyo Center Marine Field Station
32430 N. Harbor Drive
Fort Bragg, CA

Presenter: Rietta Hohman

The Greater Farallones Kelp Restoration Project is a joint initiative of NOAA’s Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries and Greater Farallones Association, in partnership with various groups, communities, and agencies. The goal of the project is to restore lost kelp forest habitat along the northern California coastline and enhance the habitat’s resilience to climate impacts for future protection. Efforts were launched in 2023 to better understand the best restoration techniques and methodologies for the region, and will be advancing a multi-year project to restore up to 27 acres of kelp forest habitat in the sanctuary. 

Rietta Hohman is the Kelp Restoration Project Manager for Greater Farallones Association and Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries. Her role involves investigating and implementing strategies for kelp forest restoration and research in the sanctuary, as well as advancing opportunities for stakeholders, community, and tribal engagement. Rietta holds an MS in Environmental Management with a focus on ecology.

6:00 PM on Zoom

Guests: Zack Klyver and Richard Riels

Sea Mammal Education Learning Technology Society (SMELTS) is a solution-based organization that designs and builds tools and technologies to reduce the negative impact of human activity on marine life. SMELTS has developed a patented Line-Free/Ropeless Lift Bag fishing technology for bottom set fisheries that allows fishers to fish and whales to live without the danger of entanglement.

Visit the SMELTS WEBSITE

This talk examines some of the challenges gray whales have faced in recent decades including a recent mortality event. It will examine in detail how one group of gray whales called the Sounders found a unique high-risk solution to the challenge they were facing and why that has worked out well for them. John Calambokidis has been studying gray whales including the Sounders and the Pacific Coast Feeding Aggregation for more than 30 years and will talk about the insights they have gained from long term tracking of individuals, deployment of suction cup attached tags, and drone-based research.

Our guest speaker for this program is John Calambokidis, a Senior Research Biologist and one of the founders of Cascadia Research Collective, a non-profit research organization formed in 1979 based in Olympia, Washington.

Guest Presenter: Gary Griggs

Read more about Gary’s work and books
at gary-griggs.com.

The shoreline is one of the most important lines on the planet and the majority of the world’s largest cities were built on coastlines. But the shoreline is moving inland, and we are in the way. As sea level rises in response to a warming plant, ice melts and seawater expands. We are already feeling the impacts of a rising sea along the California coast, including coastal flooding, shoreline retreat and coastal erosion, but this is a global issue. With climate change and sea-level rise, we have three choices for the future: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation and suffering we will experience. 

Gary Griggs is a Distinguished Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz. His research, teaching, writing and lectures have focused on the coast of California and include coastal processes, hazards, and the impacts of and responses to sea-level rise. In 1998 he received the Outstanding Physical and Biological Sciences Faculty Award at U.C. Santa Cruz, and the Alumni Association honored him with a Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006. The California Coastal Commission and Sunset Magazine named him one of California’s Coastal Heroes in 2009, and in 2010 he was elected to the California Academy of Sciences. Gary chaired a committee in 2017 recommended by Governor Brown to update California’s sea-level rise projections.  

Gary has written 14 books including: Living with the Changing California Coast; Introduction to California’s Beaches and Coast; The California Coast from the Air; Coasts in Crisis – A Global Challenge; The Edge – The Pressured Past and Precarious Future of California’s Coast; Between Paradise and Peril – The Natural Disaster History of the Monterey Bay Region; The Ominous Ocean: Rogue Waves, Rip Currents and other Dangers along the Shoreline and at Sea; and most recently California Catastrophes – The Natural Disaster History of the Golden State.