Low tide Seaweed Walk with Kathy Ann Miller

Saturday, May 25, 7:00 am - 9:30 am
MacKerricher State Park

Meet at MacKerricher State Park parking lot for a rare morning adventure! We’ll take advantage of the low tide, walking along the bluffs and scrambling down the cliffs to a remarkable reef outcropping where we will get a close up look at the seaweed biodiversity for which the Mendocino Coast is so famous. This excursion is led by seaweed guru Kathy Ann Miller of UC Berkeley. Wear sturdy boots and layered clothing. Park representatives will share about local information and tidepool etiquette.

Capacity: 25 people
Fee: $20

Register online at Eventbrite.com

MacKerricher State Park
24100 MacKerricher Park Road
Fort Bragg, CA

MacKerricher photo by Brendan McGuigan and courtesy of MendoParks.

Sea Urchin Fabric Dyeing Workshop with Seelie Studio

Saturday, May 25, 12 - 3 pm
Mendocino Art Center

Join us for the unforgettable experience of making natural dye from purple sea urchins foraged from the waters surrounding Mendocino Art Center. Artist Margaret Seelie will share how to combine ancient Polynesian dye practices and chemistry to create a salmon pink dye. You’ll dye a silk scarf and then use water marbling techniques to add swirls of monochromatic color. 

Your attendance is helping to thin the overpopulation of purple urchins and restore California kelp forests, so thank you.

Capacity: 15

Register online at the Mendocino Art Center

Mendocino Art Center
45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street
Mendocino, CA 95460

An Afternoon of Kelp Science

Ecology, Community, & Recovery on the Mendocino Coast

Saturday, May 25, 4 - 6pm
Noyo Center Marine Field Station

Come for a kelp knowledge exchange about research occurring on the Mendocino coast, in the backyard of your local community, with a speaker panel headlined by renowned seaweed and kelp taxonomist Kathy Ann Miller describing the life and times of bull kelp and its fellow marine algae. Additional researchers will report on their findings and the implications for all of us as we seek to understand the ecological, social, cultural, and economic dimensions of bull kelp loss. Community stories about impacts from kelp change and goals for recovery will be shared. Speakers from UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, Cal Poly Humbolt, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Sonoma State University and The Nature Conservancy will discuss their work to understand and support thriving kelp ecosystems and the communities that depend on them, especially referencing the Caspar, Albion and Big River projects. Lively Q&A to follow so bring questions, comments, and input; be part of the kelp knowledge network in Fort Bragg!

Free to the public, but we recommend registration to hold your spot.

Event sponsored by California Sea Grant and Cal Poly Humboldt

Noyo Center Marine Field Station
32430 N. Harbor Drive
Fort Bragg, CA

Kelp Recovery Program Demonstration Day

Sunday, May 26, 10am - 3pm
Big River Beach, Mendocino

Get a peek into what’s happening off of Big River Beach with kelp recovery program partners, led by The Nature Conservancy. Multiple stations will introduce the entire family to kelp and urchin. Try on flippers and masks while learning about the Reef Check Dive into Science program, chat with kelp experts, and play with seaweed. Learn about how important the kelp recovery program is, happening just offshore of this beach.

Free to the public. No registration necessary.

Big River Beach
Mendocino, CA

Photo courtesy of Noyo Center for Marine Science.

Film Festival Gala

Friday, May 31, 5-7 pm
Mendocino Art Center
for film festival members only

Always a not-to-miss event, the Film Festival Gala is the fun and festive opening event for the Mendocino Film Festival, this year held at the Mendocino Art Center. Enjoy live music and the convivial atmosphere with nibbles from local culinary talent and lovely wine, beer, and more from area wineries and brewmasters. For film festival members only, this annual gala is a guaranteed good time!

BECOME A MEMBER

Mendocino Art Center
45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street
Mendocino, CA 95460

Meet & Greet with Author/Designers Josie Iselin & Marianna Leuschel

Sunday, June 2, 1-3 pm
Gallery Bookstore, Mendocino

Book signings for Josie’s books, including The Curious World of Seaweed, and demos of The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp web-based book. Come celebrate a local-legend bookseller.

Gallery Bookshop
Corner of Main St and Kasten St
Mendocino, CA 9546

Science Social with Virj Kan

Virj Kan is a designer, engineer, media artist, and entrepreneur, based in Berkeley and Mendocino. Her work investigates new paradigms for design, through transdisciplinary research and technology development. This program will focus on her work with purple urchins and creating materials that serve as alternatives to plastics and other less environmentally friendly products currently in use. A Q&A follows the program. Wine, beer and non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase.

This event is open to the public with a $10 suggested donation to attend.

Noyo Center Marine Field Station
32430 N. Harbor Drive
Fort Bragg, CA

Low Tide Seaweed Walk with Josie Iselin, Larry Knowles, & Julie Drucker

Saturday, June 8, 7:00 am - 9:30 am
World Ocean Day
MacKerricher State Park

The day begins with a low tide seaweed walk at MacKerricher State Park with Josie Iselin, Larry Knowles and Julie Drucker. Josie Iselin is a visual artist, writer and designer, author of The Curious World of Seaweed, and is the co-director of a collaborative known as Above/Below, working to bring the recognition afforded the forests on land to the kelp forests below the ocean’s surface. Larry Knowles is a Fort Bragg resident and long-time commercial seaweed harvester, being the proprietor of Rising Tide Sea Vegetables. Julie Drucker is the founder of Yemaya Seaweed Company, specializing in wild, hand-harvested seaweed on the Mendocino Coast. Our artist-educators will share their knowledge and experience in seaweed gathering and give us an in-depth understanding of the delicate intertidal ecosystem.

Capacity: 25
Fee: $35 (includes Seaweed Science Social in the afternoon)

Register online at Eventbrite.com

MacKerricher State Park
24100 MacKerricher Park Road
Fort Bragg, CA

Seaweed Science Social with Josie Iselin & Julie Drucker

Saturday, June 8, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
World Ocean Day
Noyo Center Marine Field Station

Following the morning tide pool program we will gather at the Noyo Center Marine Field Station with our guest leaders to learn about pressing seaweed for cyanotypes or as herbarium pressings, and a presentation about the food and health components of seaweed.

Capacity: 25
Fee: $35 (includes Low Tide Seaweed Walk in the morning)

Register online on Eventbrite (available soon).

Noyo Center Marine Field Station
32430 N. Harbor Drive
Fort Bragg, CA

Art & Algae: Cyanotype Printing with Seaweed and Sunlight

Josie Iselin, Instructor
Saturday, June 9, 12 - 3 pm
Mendocino Art Center

Josie will introduce participants to cyanotype printing (an alternative photographic technique) using her vast collection of dried seaweed specimens as image-making material.  Josie will introduce us to her work and how she became so entwined with the fascinating world of seaweed. You will be inspired by algae's diverse biology and ecology, learn to identify a variety of green, red, and brown seaweed, and become more aware of the importance of a healthy intertidal zone and kelp forest—all  while creating beautiful blue and white cyanotypes using the power of the sun. Known for its distinctive blueprint-like images, this simple, camera-less photographic technique is the same process used by pioneering, curious, and innovative botanist and photographer Anna Atkins (British, 1799-1871). Want to bring your own specimens to identify and print with? Please do! The end results are joyous and revelatory; while making art, participants have learned about an ocean ecology they haven’t thought much about before. 

About Josie
Josie Iselin is a visual artist, writer and designer, and the author of The Curious World of Seaweed among other books. She is co-director of Above/Below, an ocean literacy campaign that created The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp (bullkelp.info)— a deep dive webstory that was released at the end of 2023. Josie has been integrating cyanotype printing with her seaweed scans for many years and constantly gains inspiration from Anna Atkins, who used the nascent photographic process of cyanotypes to document her algal findings in 1840. Josie’s work is at josieiselin.com.

• All coated paper and material supplied

• 4-5 pieces of art on fine art paper to take home

Capacity: 15

Register online at the Mendocino Art Center (available soon).

Mendocino Art Center
45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street
Mendocino, CA 95460

Open House at the Urchin Ranch

Visit the Noyo Center Marine Field Station in Noyo Harbor and learn about the organization's land-based urchin aquaculture system, or urchin ranch. While you are there, see the underwater photo and video installation featuring the work of Abbey Dias and Patrick Webster, taste wild and farmed uni, and learn more about the fascinating purple urchin from Noyo Center educators.

Donations welcome.

Noyo Center Marine Field Station
32430 N. Harbor Drive
Fort Bragg, CA

Photo Urchin Barren by Abbey Dias

Closing Celebration: Speaker Panel & Seaweed Happy Hour

Join us for the closing event of the festival when we present a program featuring researchers from The Nature Conservancy, urchin diver Grant Downie, Corine Pearce from the Redwood Valley Little River Band of Pomo, Chef Matthew Kammerer of The Harbor House in Elk, and others for a discussion about Aquaculture and Ocean Foodways. Noyo Center Executive Director Sheila Semans is our host-moderator for the program, which will begin at 5 pm.

Seaweed Happy Hour follows with some tasty organic bites prepared by local Chef Zenith Hilliard, Minus Tide wines and local beer from Anderson Valley Brewing Company, and an opportunity to meet our guest speakers. After the reception, we hope you will support the local Blue Economy and visit some excellent restaurants in the harbor or in town.

Capacity: 50
Fee: $35

Register online at Eventbrite.com

Noyo Center Marine Field Station
32430 N. Harbor Drive
Fort Bragg, CA

Photo Urchin Barren by Abbey Dias

Walking Tour of Noyo Harbor

Join the Noyo Harbor staff for a walking tour of Noyo Harbor. Learn about the different fisheries and vessels that operate out of the marina and how a healthy kelp forest relates to healthy fisheries and thus healthy communities.