SPEAKER’S BIO
Reuven Bank
In addition to my day job at the park, I also help run a conservation aquaculture 501(c)(3) non-profit in the Monterey area that some colleagues and I co-founded a few years ago.
Our goal is to conserve and restore California's kelp forests by helping to recover sunflower stars, a keystone species that keeps urchin populations in-check, preventing deforestation of kelp ecosystems. Sentinel recently published an article about our work, here:
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A sunflower star clings to a rocky reef in Alaska. Photo courtesy of starfriend Marco Mazza
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While Live Dive is still waiting on maintenance solutions before fully ramping up, I would be very interested in presenting to your group as a guest speaker about California's kelp crisis, and how sunflower star conservation, and the work of Sunflower Star Laboratory, is a large part of the solution to restoring ecosystem function and protecting our kelp~ RB
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Our Organization
Find out about our mission to reintroduce the sunflower star in California.
Juvenile urchins, partially transformed urchin larvae, and late stage urchin larvae are shown under a microscope