![]() The larger mollusks, including mussels and snails, are disappearing in alarming numbers, Murray has found. “This place, when I first started studying marine biology, was like a Garden of Eden,” Kelly said. Areas of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, 25 miles south of San Francisco, are periodically partitioned for months at a time to allow sea life to recover.Īt Little Corona, the balance of sea life already is seriously out of whack. ![]() ![]() In some Northern California locations, conservation efforts have come too late, leaving sickly tide pools that will take decades to recover. Only 9% of Orange County’s coast is rocky intertidal land, and the easy bus access to Little Corona makes it the most heavily trafficked in the 18 kilometers of Orange County tide pools. Cal State Fullerton Professor Steve Murray, who has been conducting extensive research on the Orange County tide pools for the last several years, adds that although Little Corona is among the worst hit, tide pools along the entire Orange County coast have been suffering in the last few decades. Little Corona is only the latest rocky area along the California coast, and as far as Oregon and New Zealand, where humans have wrought havoc on this delicate habitat for plants, shellfish and some young fish. Many other tourists come without registering with the department. Crystal Cove scheduled about 7,690 that year, and Dana Point recorded 12,204 students. The Newport Beach Fire and Marine Department, which schedules school groups and has recently placed a limit of 300 students visiting on any given day, recorded up to 15,000 students visiting the site in 1996. No other tide pool in the county receives as many visitors in organized groups.
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