{"id":1508,"date":"2021-07-28T09:17:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T16:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/study-of-nature-preserve-turns-up-more-than-1000-species-and-signs-of-changing-oceans\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T10:38:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:38:02","slug":"inventory-life-catalina-blue-cavern-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/inventory-life-catalina-blue-cavern-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Study of nature preserve turns up more than 1,000 species and signs of changing oceans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                                    \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3519-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3519-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Study of nature preserve turns up more than 1,000 species and signs of changing oceans\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Although great white sharks are rare close to the shores of Catalina Island, undergraduate researcher Audrey Looby sighted one during a research dive. (Photo: Courtesy of Griffin Srednick.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=faculty\">Faculty<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Study of nature preserve turns up more than 1,000 species and signs of changing oceans<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  To create a comprehensive inventory of marine species in Santa Catalina Island\u2019s Blue Cavern Point nature preserve, USC Dornsife scholars dived into kelp forests, scoured museum archives and came face-to-face with a great white shark. <strong>[5 min read]<\/strong>\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">July 28, 2021<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 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     >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Blue Cavern Point on the eastern edge of Santa Catalina Island, some 25 miles off the coast of San Pedro, California, is a hotbed of life. In the shallow edges of the water cling starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. Farther out in deeper seas, bright orange garibaldi and giant sea bass the size of pianos make their home in rippling forests of giant kelp reaching hundreds of feet from the ocean\u2019s surface to its floor.<\/p>\n<p>The area is divided into two protected areas: offshore and onshore. The onshore region encompasses the first three square miles of the preserve. Its offshore area reaches out about eight miles into deeper ocean. Since 1988, the area has been protected from fishing or specimen collection.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 411px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/nudibranchblue-3519.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a blue nudibranch.\" width=\"411\" height=\"377\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Collecting and pollution have pushed the nudibranch F. californiensis to the brink of extinction. (Image Source: WikiCommons.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Despite this area\u2019s exceptional biodiversity, no one had completed a comprehensive survey of all the creatures that call these waters home. In 2015, <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1005903\">David Ginsburg<\/a>, professor (teaching) of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/environmental-studies\/\">environmental studies<\/a>\u00a0at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Audrey Looby, then an undergraduate majoring in environmental studies, set out to change that.<\/p>\n<p>Their study, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/350327907_Nearshore_Species_Biodiversity_of_a_Marine_Protected_Area_Off_Santa_Catalina_Island_California\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nearshore Species Biodiversity of a Marine Protected Area Off Santa Catalina, Island, California<\/a>,\u201d an inventory all of the species of this unique preserve, was published in the March 2021 edition of \u201cWestern North American Naturalist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They documented more than 1,000 different kinds of marine macroalgae, plants, invertebrates and fishes. Their research also revealed that human activity and climate change appear to be altering these pristine waters.<\/p>\n<h2>Partners in cataloguing<\/h2>\n<p>Their project was first inspired by a routine environmental impact inspection of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wrigley\/wmsc\/\">USC Wrigley Marine Science Center<\/a>\u00a0on Catalina Island, where a pipe funnels seawater through the lab\u2019s aquariums and back into nearby Big Fisherman\u2019s Cove.<\/p>\n<p>As the inspection process began, Ginsburg soon discovered that no complete inventory of the marine life inhabiting the area existed. This posed a problem.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 436px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/Ginsburg_CatalinaInventory_InStoryA-3519.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of David Ginsberg seated near tide pools.\" width=\"436\" height=\"281\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Ginsburg has been teaching at USC Dornsife since 2009. (Photo: Courtesy of David Ginsburg.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHere you have this marine-protected area and you\u2019re supposed to know what\u2019s in there, but no one really knows,\u201d says Ginsburg. Only a scattering of research papers or incomplete catalogs gave an idea of the biodiversity. His interest in undertaking a more comprehensive survey was piqued.<\/p>\n<p>The scope of the project was intimidating, however. Cataloguing every species would require both diving for specimens and diving into archives. Simply surveying the present environment would not capture the full spectrum of what lived in the point. Some species passed in and out of the cove, were seasonal or perhaps so endangered they were rare to find in the present day. He\u2019d have to go back and find everything that had ever been recorded in the area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI talked to a lot of people about this,\u201d says Ginsburg. \u201cMy friend\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nhm.org\/person\/hendler-gordon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gordon Hendler<\/a>\u00a0[curator of echinoderms] at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles said, \u2018You\u2019ll never find a stopping point.\u2019\u201d Hendler encouraged Ginsburg to pursue the project with a more realistic goal of cataloguing as much as he could, given that anything would be an improvement.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, Ginsburg would not have to go it alone. Looby received a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wrigley\/reu\/\">Research Summer Undergraduate internship<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wrigley\">USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies<\/a>, headquartered at USC Dornsife. She would be spending the summer on the island and readily agreed to assist with Ginsburg\u2019s plans.\u00a0Perhaps, between the two of them, such a complex study had a chance for completion.<\/p>\n<h2>Under the sea (and into the archives)<\/h2>\n<p>Looby\u2019s enthusiasm was due in part to her new-found love of diving. She\u2019d become certified thanks to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wrigley\/scientificdiving\/\">USC\u2019s AAUS Scientific Diving Course<\/a>\u00a0and was eager to get as much time in the water as possible.<\/p>\n<div class=\"news-image-portrait news-image-right\">\n<figure style=\"width: 315px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/Ginsburg_CatalinaInventory_InStoryB-3519.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Audrey Looby standing in front of a pier with boats.\" width=\"315\" height=\"490\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">USC Dornsife alumna Audrey Looby is pursuing her Ph.D. in fisheries and aquatic science. (Photo: Courtesy of Audrey Looby.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Exploring life bobbing beneath the water line was like encountering a different planet, says Looby. A neon nudibranch, a mollusc so vivid it could easily be mistaken for a Salvador Dali invention, twisted along algae covered rocks. Stingrays glided through the currents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first time you see them, you suddenly see the ground moving underneath you and there\u2019s a whole fever of rays swimming along,\u201d says Looby, who is now a fisheries and aquatic sciences\u00a0Ph.D. student at the University of Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Ginsburg and Looby completed visual surveys of five intertidal reefs around the point, meticulously identifying and recording everything from the smallest microalgae on up to those piano-sized bass.<\/p>\n<p>Some of their encounters were\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/californiadiver.com\/great-white-shark-at-catalina-a-close-encounter-of-the-carnivorous-kind\/v\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">newsworthy<\/a>. On Looby\u2019s last dive of the summer, she and her fellow divers sighted a 15-foot, pregnant great white shark, one of only a handful of sightings ever recorded in the area.<\/p>\n<p>The project also required less adventurous work. The duo scoured thousands of pages of documents from 1960 to the present for recordings of specimens sighted in the area. Resources included old research papers, museum and herbarium specimen records and citizen science recordings.<\/p>\n<p>From these efforts, the list of specimens sighted in the cove reached some 1,100 unique species all within the less than three square miles of the preserve.<\/p>\n<h2>Shifting seas<\/h2>\n<p>Ginsburg and Looby\u2019s work also produced more ominous findings \u2014 how human hands are changing the cove, despite protective efforts<\/p>\n<p>Some changes are more benign than others. As they perused studies, they discovered that there was no mention of sea grasses, or any of the species that typically live among the grasses, prior to the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe leopard sharks and the rays that Catalina divers remember probably weren\u2019t here before the dock,\u201d says Ginsburg. \u201cThat was another part of the story that I really thought was cool. It\u2019s not just about naming all the species; it\u2019s also about recording some really big ecosystem shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other discoveries were bleaker. The Dali-esque nudibranch, for example, has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/260554417_Regional_extinction_of_a_conspicuous_dorid_nudibranch_Mollusca_Gastropoda_in_California\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">declined severely<\/a>\u00a0in number, likely due to pollution and collecting for home aquariums. Sea stars like the bat star and spiny star, despite frequent recordings in past surveys, weren\u2019t found on their dives. Unusual sightings of subtropical species like the finescale triggerfish in the area point to warming oceans.<\/p>\n<p>These ecological discoveries combined with their catalog of species \u2014 the most complete in history \u2014 make Ginsburg and Looby\u2019s study an important baseline for keeping this treasured area intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/trumps-words-arent-stopping-many-countries-from-setting-higher-climate-goals\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Trump\u2019s words aren\u2019t stopping China, Brazil and many other countries from setting higher climate goals, but progress is\u00a0slow<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/amazon-gold-mining-impedes-reforestation-efforts\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Why forests aren\u2019t coming back after gold mining in the Amazon<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/throwing-soup-van-gogh-climate-protesters-cop27\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Throwing soup on a Van Gogh: How climate protesters are making their voices heard over Egypt\u2019s climate summit\u00a0suppression<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To create a comprehensive inventory of marine species in Santa Catalina Island\u2019s Blue Cavern Point nature preserve, USC Dornsife scholars dived into kelp forests, scoured museum archives and came face-to-face with a great white shark. <strong>[5 min read]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":1511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17,15],"tags":[66,411,114,410,144],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-student","category-sustainability","tag-climate-change","tag-david-ginsburg","tag-environmental-studies","tag-oceans","tag-wrigley-marine-science-center"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - 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