Details, Dates & Registration

To see AVAILABLE DATES for this event, scroll down to the Registration Form below the class description.

What You Will Learn

We're thrilled to bring you to the ocean to forage for sea urchins on the gorgeous Sonoma Coast.

This 3-hour class is all about sea urchins or uni, as you may have heard it called in a sushi restaurant. Learn where they live, what they eat, and who eats them...but more specifically, who hasn't been eating them and how that has impacted our kelp forests, and how humans eating them actually lends a helping hand to bringing our intertidal zone back into balance!

Take home up to 35 urchins. You'll have a deeper understanding of how some of our ocean habitats are the first major biomes to experience sudden collapse due to a rapidly changing climate, and how we can mitigate the damage.

Where

A beach in Northern Sonoma, about 2.5 hours north of San Francisco. Exact location provided with registration. 

Instructors

Ricardo Romero Gianoli has been living, foraging, and cooking in Northern California since 2008. One of his passions and career focuses is kelp forest restoration. Ricardo is a certified restoration scuba diver and kelp forest monitor who has surveyed sites from the Salish Sea to Orange County but he focuses his restoration efforts on the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts. It is his greatest joy to connect people with the ocean through adventure, food, and education in the intertidal zone.

Ryn Sullivan brings over 10 years of experience in outdoor education and nature-inspired crafts to our team. As a backpacking guide, naturalist, and lifelong maker, they’re always finding new ways to work with what’s around us while caring for the ecosystem. They’ve been foraging since childhood and diving headfirst into their passion for the intertidal zone and all the creatures that call it home. They are involved in many sea urchin projects and are excited to teach Fork in the Path's students how to find and eat urchin as part of their holistic restoration efforts. When not foraging, you might find them teaching wilderness first aid classes, free diving for purple urchins, or crafting cordage from the irises in their backyard. Ryn is a certified Wilderness First Responder, yoga teacher, and California fishing guide.

Ticket Options

A portion of your program fee goes to Native American Rights Fund.  

Adults

• $125 Pay it Forward (I'd like to support someone else to come)

• $100  Standard Ticket

• $75 Community Supported (these are supported by Pay it Forward tickets) 

Children (recommended for age 6 and up)

• $75 per teen

• $55 per child (under 12)

Special Things to Bring

• Fishing license (see advice below this section)

• $10 cash or check per vehicle for parking (or park outside the park gates and walk a bit for free)

• thicker soled non-slip shoes that can get wet, but will protect your feet from urchin spines, such as sneakers or rubber boots

• an ice chest 

• ice blocks to keep your sea urchin cool while you transport them home

• buckets to carry your urchins

• layers and sun protection (coastal weather can be very variable) 

• A change of dry clothes, shoes, and socks, you may get wet at this class! But you will definitely get wet up to the knees

• A headlamp or flashlight if your class is in the afternoon.

• rubber gloves (if you want - optional - handling urchins will stain your fingers, but you CAN handle them ) 

Fishing License Requirement & Advice

This class requires a CA fishing license for all participants age 16 and up, per CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife regs that you must purchase separately here:  https://www.licenses.wildlife.ca.gov/internetsales/ you must create a profile to purchase the license. You can get a one day license for $20, or annual license is the best option if you plan to fish, clam, mussel, etc more than one day in the next year. If you need help, please contact California Department of Fish and Wildlife - 916-928-2537 (Monday-Friday: 8:00am to 5:00pm, PST) Email - LRB@wildlife.ca.gov 

You can use an annual or a day sport fishing license for this class.  If you are getting a day license, we recommend waiting until a few days before your class to purchase the license in case we need to postpone the class due to a storm or toxic conditions. CDFW will not allow you to transfer your license to a different date. 

About a week before your class, you will receive an email from us with step-by-step instructions on how to get your license. 

More Important Details

These programs are very popular and often fill up very quickly. We encourage you to register right away if you'd like to attend!

You will receive a registration confirmation once we've received this form + your payment + your signed liability waiver. Our programs fill up quickly, and we cannot hold your spot until we've received all 3. If you submit your registration in the evening or on a weekend it may take us 12-24 hours to send the confirmation. 

• This program runs rain or shine! In the event of severe hazardous weather, the class will be rescheduled with the option to reenroll, or get a refund or a credit

• Fees cover program costs only and do not cover transportation or lodging. We do provide a carpool spreadsheet once you've registered that participants use to self-organize ridesharing. 

• You are required to sign a waiver to participate. 

• Recommended age is 8 and up, but you know your child best

• We love dogs, but please don't bring them to the class

• This class may be larger (up to 40) than our standard classes, it is in part a restoration effort

Park and Fish and Wildlife Rules and Regs

You are required to follow all park and fish and wildlife rules and regulations.

No other plants, mushrooms or other forms of life may be harvested during this program.  

MAKE SURE to press SUBMIT on the bottom of the form or your registration will not be received.

You may need to scroll down within the form to find the SUBMIT button.

If you are not taken directly to the Payment page, a payment link has also been sent to your email.