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Solomon, Kinley recalled, would paddle his canoe to Xwe’chi’eXen to jig for skinny, silvery herring flitting around lush bull kelp and eelgrass forests waving in the deep blue waters.

The veterinarian who lives in Berkeley, California is part of a crew of volunteers who swim, snorkel and dive armed with pick axes and hammers on a sole mission: To crush purple urchins that largely destroyed 96% of California’s iconic bull kelp forests between 2014 and 2020, and with it harmed red abalone and other sea life they supported.

There are still huge challenges to overcome before California’s bull kelp is on the path to recovery.

Other must-haves on the menu: ruby-red deviled eggs steeped in beet juice and topped with candied mustard seeds, and a colorful pickle plate of astonishing variety, from garden-grown vegetables to foraged foods such as fiddleheads and rings of bull kelp.

Thick forests of brown-green bull kelp wave ribbonlike appendages in ocean currents.