Ocean Hoptimism

Since June 2025, we’ve built Ocean Hoptimism one gathering at a time. People keep showing up. More speakers want to join us. Now, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we want travel costs to be one less reason someone can’t. Our Ocean Voices Fund launches today. Help us grow—and please share.

73°F water near Catalina is drawing tropical mubula rays north. Spectacular visitors, but warmer water can also shred kelp forests and suppress the nutrient supply that feeds marine life. This is more than a change in scenery: it’s a shift in the food web that sustains wildlife and fisheries.

Suddenly struck by the similarities: restoring urchins in the Caribbean helps coral reefs recover. Removing urchins by restoring sunflower stars on North America’s Pacific coast could help kelp forests recover. Opposite approaches, shared goal: restoring ecological balance. Echinoderms FTW!

Wear hope on your sleeve. Literally. 🌊 Grab a premium shirt or hoodie while they last in our "Wear Hope. Make Waves." campaign! Every purchase helps Ocean Hoptimism grow, bringing more people together to find community, discover what’s possible, and turn love for the ocean into action.

Kelp forest loss leaves red urchins hungry, with little marketable uni—and harvesters without income. California’s red urchin fishery will share in NOAA’s disaster relief funding. Supporting livelihoods matters, and restoring the kelp forests that sustain them remains essential.

Samoan chiefs & community groups are suing to stop the Nov. 19 seabed-mining lease sale, challenging U.S. authority to auction their ancestral waters. Food security, cultural stewardship and deep-sea life are at stake. Amplify Pacific-led resistance. The lawsuit has not yet stopped the sale.

What’s it worth to feel less alone in caring for the ocean? To find hope, your people, and a way to make a difference? Help someone else find that, too. Support Ocean Hoptimism’s Ocean Voices Fund. Scan the QR code or click the link below to donate. www.zeffy.com/en-US/donati...

The ocean still contains astonishing, ridiculous beauty. Cuttlefish change costumes. Parrotfish sleep in mucus cocoons. Nudibranchs look wildly overdressed for every occasion. There is joy available in their existence, without requiring them to be a conservation success story first.

Before that buttery, delicious black cod arrives on your plate, there’s a bigger story beneath the surface. On November 19, Ocean Hoptimism welcomes someone working to change how that story ends. We’re keeping the details submerged for now. Save the date. Something BIG is brewing. 🍺

A coastal Kelvin wave. Record ocean heat. Extreme tides. Wetter atmospheric rivers. Intense downpours. If peak storms meet peak tides, California could face extraordinary coastal flooding. The ocean is coming with climate-intensified receipts this winter.

Some images make you want to look away. Let’s give each other a reason to lean in. This November’s Ocean Hoptimism explores a wild ocean bearing the weight of our presence—and the choices that can lighten it. Come learn what’s possible, and where you fit. www.oceanhoptimism.org

Art is intrinsic to science communication: it helps us see, understand, and care. As Sunflower Star Lab’s Andrew Kim unpacks the star’s complex life history and development, artist Cody Lee’s gorgeous diagram makes that story visible. Biology becomes art, and wonder becomes a way into the science.

What a night with Sunflower Star Lab! The first rain of the season couldn’t dampen our Ocean Hoptimism community’s spirit. Thanks for turning out on a wet October evening and filling the room with warmth, curiosity, and ocean hope. We’ll let the photos do the talking. 🍺🌊📸

Last night, Ashley Kidd & Andrew Kim of Sunflower Star Laboratory unpacked the many moving parts (arms?) of sea star recovery! 🍺⭐ Thanks for bringing science, passion, hope, and determination to Ocean Hoptimism—and inspiring us to find our place in the comeback. www.sunflowerstarlab.org

Greenland’s parliament has called for legislation to pause seabed mining until 2029. A welcome step toward protecting marine life and coastal livelihoods. Here’s hoping that in three years, Greenland puts this threat to rest with a permanent ban. The ocean deserves more than a reprieve.

So much ahead at Ocean Hoptimism: defending whales, Indigenous-led coastal restoration, wellbeing on conservation’s front lines, El Niño, the blue economy’s promises and pitfalls, and more kelp stories. Help support our Ocean Voices Fund to spark conversations, build community, and inspire action!

TONIGHT! Not quite Halloween, but close enough. 🎃 What’s scarier than a bad John Carpenter movie? Sunflower stars… if you’re an urchin. Scarier still? Their population crash. Meet the people working on their comeback! Ocean Hoptimism. Faction Brewing. 7–8 PM. Free. Season of the Pint! 🍺

You’ve waited patiently. The urchins have waited nervously. Tomorrow, Sunflower Star Laboratory all-stars Ashley Kidd & Andrew Kim take the Ocean Hoptimism stage! Come for a beer. Find your place in the comeback story. Faction Brewing, Alameda | Oct 22, 7–8 PM | www.oceanhoptimism.org/save-the-date

In his second term, President Trump has taken action to remove protections from marine areas stretching across more than 1 million square miles, threatening iconic seascapes with industrial-scale fishing fleets. https://ampr.gs/4snfRdW

Two more days. Unstoppable hope. ⭐🍺 Join Ocean Hoptimism and Sunflower Star Laboratory’s Ashley Kidd & Andrew Kim for sea star recovery science—and find your place in the comeback story. Oct 22 | 7–8 PM Faction Brewing, Alameda Free.

Registration for SharktoberFest is now open! 🦈 Join OSEA & Vermilion Sea Institute Oct 26–30 for a FREE online celebration of shark science. Meet researchers, explore conservation and careers, and find ways to get involved. Shark science is for everyone!

The ocean helps keep our planet livable, and that work depends on the life within it. When species disappear, we can’t count on others to take their place. Protecting ocean life means protecting the living systems that protect us.

Ocean Hoptimism is back in three days with another banger of a night of sea, stories, and suds! 🍺⭐ Meet Sunflower Star Laboratory’s co-founders Ashley Kidd & Andrew Kim and find your place in the sunflower star comeback. Oct 22 | 7–8 PM | Faction Brewing, Alameda Free & Open To All.

In case it slipped your mind, it’s still Sharktober. 🦈 And this great white apparently wasn’t about to let a California beach video happen without a cameo. A little awe, a little perspective: the ocean is somebody else’s home. We’re just visiting.

Purple urchins may not be ready to discuss sunflower star recovery. But we are. Hear what’s got their tube feet in a twist: Sunflower Star Laboratory’s Ashley Kidd & Andrew Kim at Ocean Hoptimism. Oct 22, Faction Brewing. Free, 7–8 PM. Urchins: consider this a warning. “NOW a warning?!”

California Fish & Game advanced Chumash-led marine protection and stronger safeguards at Point Dume—a meaningful win. But rejecting other proposed protections left opportunities to strengthen the MPA network unrealized. Approved petitions still need regulations before protections take effect.

We’ve been inconsistent—and frankly lazy—about crediting the underwater photographers whose images we share. We’re sorry. Their skill & artistry reveal an unseen world and help us care about its future. They deserve credit every time. We’ll do better, including adding missing credits on past posts.

Stars. Science. Suds.

Join us in 6 days and raise a pint to the Sunflower Star Laboratory.

Don’t even ask how long this took to animate. Just join us Oct 22 and have a beer with Ashley Kidd & Andrew Kim of Sunflower Star Laboratory. Hear about the sunflower star comeback at Ocean Hoptimism, Faction Brewing, Alameda. Free, 7–8 PM. (The urchins are hoping we cancel.)

Agreed! Humpbacks are A-tier cetaceans. Original songs. Elaborate choreography. Actual stage presence. Humpbacks deserve an EGOT! Meanwhile, southern right whales are floating around like “we don’t perform for approval.” Okay, barnacle couch. 😂 Kidding. We love all whales… even the opening acts.

Who knew sea urchins were this organized? How’d they find our flyer? Where’d they get a printer? And all those tube feet yet not ONE could hit spell check? Come see what’s got them so “disgusteng.” Ocean Hoptimism, Oct 22, 7–8 PM, Faction Brewing, Alameda. Free. Urchin disapproved.

Who pays for cheap farmed seafood? This @therevelator.org coverage of an Outlaw Ocean Project investigation exposes fishmeal’s hidden costs: foul air, health risks and lost livelihoods in poorer coastal communities, where edible wild fish become feed for wealthy markets.

Somewhere in a lab, a very small sea star is becoming a very big deal. 🌟 Meet Ashley Kidd & Andrew Kim of Sunflower Star Laboratory at Ocean Hoptimism. Grab a pint, bring your questions, and find your place in a comeback worth rooting for. Oct 22, Faction Brewing, Alameda. Free, 7–8 PM.

Clone us some hope! Stanford researchers found that bleached corals can recover after contact with healthy, genetically identical neighbors. Promising lab results, but scaling up remains a challenge. A breakthrough worth pursuing, not a substitute for cutting emissions.

Of 1,700+ sea cucumber species, only one spends its entire life swimming. Pelagothuria turns its webbed veil into a living funnel, catching carbon-rich “marine snow” before it reaches the seafloor. A drifting cucumber quietly rerouting the ocean’s carbon traffic.

Nine panels. A few pints. You don’t need to be a marine biologist to help the ocean. Our comic turns “That’s amazing” into “Where do I fit in?” Find your place in sunflower star recovery at Ocean Hoptimism w/ Ashley Kidd & Andrew Kim of Sunflower Star Laboratory. Oct 22, Faction Brewing, 7–8 PM—FREE

While we don’t think the X-Men or Spider-Man have anything to fear, our comic strip debuting tomorrow has a superpower of its own: turning ocean curiosity into community, connection, and action. No radioactive spider bites required. Just show up. 🦈🍻🌊

No gatekeeping Oakland gems. Can confirm: best doubles outside Trinidad. A bold claim backed by A LOT of doubles eaten in Trinidad. (We’ve conducted extensive late night research.)

A white shark off Point Reyes had unusual company: tropical pilotfish, yet another possible sign of El Niño’s warming waters. Researchers are tracking how changing ocean conditions affect white sharks and their prey along California’s coast.

A sea star comeback needs more than arms. It needs people. ⭐🍺 Join Ocean Hoptimism Thursday, Oct 22, as Sunflower Star Laboratory shares the science, surprises, and teamwork behind recovery. Discover where you fit in the story. 📍 Faction Brewing, Alameda | 7–8 PM | Free!