Scientists catch and gather threatened western pond turtles to track wildlife disease and turtle health in the face of a changing climate.
It is legal to harvest a certain amount of mussels and various sealife from various portions of the California coast. However certain areas like Pillar point have become too popular to be sustainable. At low tides crowds of 100s of people regularly descend upon the tidepools in a relatively small section of coast to legally harvest sealife such as mussels. These mussels may take close to a decade to grow back. A good example of tragedy of the commons, too many people making use of a common resource until it is depleted or destroyed. Thats not even mentioning the people who chisel away at the rock with prybars or screwdrivers (illegal) or harvest well beyond limits or take species that shouldn't be harvested whether through ignorance or greed. Fish and wildlife regularly issues tickets for violations here but that doesn't undo the damage that is already done. I believe this bountiful section of seashore will either soon be depleted of any sealife which can be harvested or will be declared off limits for harvest. But for now while mussels and other edible inverts abound and regulation has not yet caught up to the increased traffic of recent years it remains popular.
