The Brief

It’s well before the lunch hour when a worker lugs a large plastic storage bin out of the kitchen at the Bluewater Grill in Newport Beach and into the back of Kaysha Kenney’s minivan.

The bin is full of discarded oyster shells from the previous night’s dinner service, plus some lemons and half-eaten bread. Kenney wants the shells, but the extra food bits are OK, she said, “because they sit out in a field and they have little animals that will come and kind of pick off the food scraps.”

This pickup is the first phase of a project led by Kenney’s group Orange County Coastkeeper. The goal is to use oyster shells from local restaurants to restore the once-abundant oyster beds along the coast and buffer the shoreline from erosion and rising seas.

Though the shells Kenney collects are non-native oysters, Coastkeeper’s project is focused on restoring Olympia oysters — the only native species along the West Coast. The species has been decimated by coastal development and overharvesting, starting in the Gold Rush days when they fed tens of thousands of hungry fortune-seekers.

In early fall, Orange County Coastkeeper collected dozens of oyster shell strings hanging off docks in Huntington Harbour. This year, they recruited more than 700 baby oysters or "spat" that will be transplanted to coastal restoration projects.

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Courtesy Coastkeeper

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Stop 2: San Joaquin Marsh

With the blue Coastkeeper minivan full of stinky shells, Kenney heads inland to a hot, sunny patch of land next to the San Joaquin Marsh in Irvine. Here, she weighs each restaurant’s contribution, and spreads the shells out to cure in the sun to rid them of pathogens — and any leftover horseradish and tabasco sauce.

California regulations require the shells to cure for at least six months before they can be put back into the water. These particular shells are destined for the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge. Coastkeeper is working with California State University, Fullerton, and the U.S. Navy to build what’s called a living shoreline to help protect Navy buildings in the refuge that are threatened by erosion.

 ”A living shoreline is where we take an eroding shoreline and we effectively replant it with living plants and animals that can stabilize that shoreline,” explained Danielle Zacherl, a biology professor at Cal State Fullerton who’s leading the project.

And using discarded shells helps reduce restaurant waste.

“Think about this natural product that's getting sent to landfills that really could be doing so much more good,” Zacherl said.

Kenney spreads out the morning's collection from restaurants onto a patch of land near the San Joaquin Marsh in Irvine. The shells will cure in the sun for at least six months to rid them of pathogens.

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Jill Replogle

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LAist

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Living shorelines are becoming popular across the country. They’re seen as more cost-efficient and ecologically friendly compared to what’s known as hard armoring, like seawalls and riprap. Zacherl and Coastkeeper have teamed up on several living shoreline projects along the Southern California coast, including in Newport Bay and Long Beach’s Alamitos Bay.

Oyster beds anchor the shoreline, keeping it from washing away, Zacherl explained.

“They also encourage sedimentation by generating eddies. The shells popping up into the water column slow the water velocity and allow sediment to filter down,” she said. “That's really important for coastal habitats right now, especially in the face of climate change.”

Daniel Zacherl, a professor at Cal State Fullerton, leads restoration projects along the Southern California coast that use oysters and complementary species like eelgrass to slow down coastal erosion.

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Jill Replogle

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LAist

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Oysters also filter the water, removing excess nutrients that cause harmful algal blooms. In fact, a single adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons a day. They also improve water quality for eelgrass — which sequesters carbon, provides habitat for ocean critters and also helps prevent erosion.

The living shoreline planned for the Seal Beach refuge will be made up of a combination of oyster beds, eelgrass and another coastal plant, cordgrass. But first, Zacherl needs live oysters.

That’s where folks like Craig Schauppner come in.

Craig Schauppner

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Jill Replogle

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LAist

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Stop 3: Huntington Harbour

Schauppner is one of close to 90 residents in Huntington Harbour, at the northwestern end of Huntington Beach, who has become a kind of oyster nanny. Last spring, Coastkeeper gave him and the other volunteers strings of discarded and cured oyster shells to hang off their docks.

Oyster larvae floating through the water settle on those shells and start to secrete their own shell. Combined with other oysters, they effectively glue themselves together to form oyster beds.

During a visit last month, Schauppner pulled up a wire strung with more than a dozen oyster shells and pointed out a small dark circle on the inside of one of them.

“ So you could see, like right there, there's a spot. There might've been an oyster there at one time, but maybe a predator came and ate it or something like that,” he said.

His shell strings weren’t particularly attractive to baby oysters this year. But that’s OK, he said.

An oyster bed restoration project in Jack Dunster Marine Biological Reserve in Long Beach.

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Courtesy of Danielle Zacherl

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“Part of the project is to figure out where we can harvest oysters, where they can grow and, you know, where to avoid,” he said. “So I’m contributing to the data, right?”

At the end of September, Coastkeeper retrieved the shell strings from Schauppner and other volunteers in Huntington Harbour. They harvested more than 700 baby oysters, called “spat,” which were then transplanted to Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge for the living shoreline project.

Kenney from Coastkeeper said it’s sometimes hard for the oyster nannies to let go but hopefully a little easier knowing their slimy charges will be helping clean the water and reestablish a resilient California coast.

Alysa Liu’s comeback at this year’s Olympics — and her stunning gold medal win — has rocked the world of figure skating, making headlines due to her joy while performing and her commitment to mental health on and off the ice.

Though she primarily trained in Oakland, Liu, who’s also a psychology student at UCLA, has used a facility in Lakewood as one of her home bases away from home. The 20-year-old started training there as she came back from retirement and prepared to take the gold medal (not that that was necessarily her goal, to hear her tell it).

It’s part of a long history for the Rinks-Lakewood ICE, which has also hosted many champions and Olympians over the years, including Mariah Bell, Nathan Chen, Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon, and counts prominent figure skaters among their staff.

“ We're not unfamiliar with Olympic ties,” said Braden Overett, the skating manager at Lakewood ICE, though he also clarified, “that does not in any way diminish the fun and the coolness [of Liu’s win].”

Lakewood ICE’s place in this year’s Olympics

Working with her coaches remotely, Liu started to drill down on perfecting her skating while also attending classes at UCLA. And though she moved on to her home base at Oakland Ice Center as the Olympic training started to ramp up, the staff who worked with her at Lakewood ICE kept cheering her on.

Overett said that he loves highlighting the Olympic connections at the rink, which may not be obvious to everyone who skates there.

“It's always fun just to connect the dots, right?” Overett said. “It's like going to a restaurant and then you find out later it's your favorite actor's restaurant.”

Ashleigh Ellis runs the nonprofit Unity Ice Academy, which focuses on increasing access to figure skating for kids of all backgrounds at Lakewood ICE.

“ That's just very much how the skating world is. It's very small, you never know who you're going to run into at any time,” Ellis said. “ Could you imagine just being on the ice with a national champion and Olympic skater of any sort? It's just so inspiring for the kids to see that and be within the vicinity of that.”

And Liu wasn’t the only 2026 Olympic figure skater who's used the facility. Li Yu-Hsiang, the Taiwanese national champion who represented Chinese Taipei in Milan this year, also trains in Lakewood.

The rink’s coaches

The small world of skating means that even novice skaters can take classes from world-class skaters: 1976 Olympic silver medalist Dianne de Leeuw teaches there, as do national medalists (and future Olympic contenders) Starr Andrews and Josephine Lee.

 "To get to see them and to get to share ice with them just has a layer of magic that you can't replace and you can't get anywhere else,” Overett said. “ You see the turnover of generations, and it brings in a huge element of history.”

What Liu’s win means for the skating world

Ellis is already using Liu’s example to stress the importance of mental health to the kids and families she works with, like one parent who was worrying about her child taking two weeks off skating due to pneumonia.

“I was like, ‘Alysa Liu took two plus years off and she just won the Olympic gold. Do not worry about it this two weeks,’” she said.

A bipartisan bill aimed at protecting pets during disasters has been introduced in Congress, with a Southern California representative citing the rescue efforts of local organizations during last year’s L.A.-area fires.

The PETSAFE Act of 2026 — which stands for Providing Essential Temporary Shelter Assistance For Emergencies — would expand the use of emergency management funds so local governments can plan for evacuations that move animals to safety, as well as provide veterinary care and rescue equipment during disasters.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) helped introduce the bill earlier this month with several House of Representatives colleagues, including Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida and Democrat Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada.

Chu, who represents Pasadena and Altadena in the 28th Congressional District, said when the Eaton Fire tore through her district, many families delayed evacuations because they couldn’t bear to leave their pets behind.

She told LAist she’ll never forget seeing the cats, dogs and other animals with burned feet and singed fur who were being cared for by Pasadena Humane in the aftermath.

“But to think, if there is even one more thing we could do to keep our precious pets safe, wouldn't we want to do that?” Chu said. “So this PETSAFE Act could go a long way towards making sure that our loved pets can indeed survive a disaster.”

About the bill

Pasadena Humane teams looked for pets and wildlife in Eaton burn zones, dropping off food and water along the way.

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Courtesy Pasadena Humane

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The PETSAFE Act now has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The bill would amend the Emergency Management Performance Grant program to increase the federal cost share for certain animal-related preparedness activities from 50% to 90%.

Supporters say this would lower barriers and make it more affordable for communities to roll out emergency protection plans for people and pets.

Specifically, the PETSAFE Act would allow state, local and tribal governments to use grant money awarded by FEMA toward pet supplies, crates, veterinary equipment, emergency generators and training, among others.

Pet owners whose homes are under disaster-related evacuation orders can be faced with an “impossible choice” — leaving their pets behind or staying home with them, which risks the owner’s own safety and complicates rescue efforts for first responders, according to Chu’s office.

The bill aims to address the challenges pet owners and first responders face without authorizing new federal spending, according to Mast’s office.

How we got here 

Chu said local shelters, including Pasadena Humane, and communities across California stepped up to care for all kinds of animals during the Eaton Fire, which ignited in January 2025.

Pasadena Humane helped more than 1,500 pets and wildlife during the fire and in the aftermath by providing shelter, medical care and emergency resources.

A horse was housed in the organization’s garage when Chris Ramon, Pasadena Humane’s president and CEO, ran into its owner walking down Raymond Avenue for miles.

“Part of me likes to think that this won’t happen again,” Ramon told LAist last month. “But the realist in me realizes … disaster preparedness is something that just is an ongoing conversation for us at Pasadena Humane.”

Chu also cited the work of the ASPCA, which helped more than 530 animals during the Eaton Fire, including goats, parakeets, pigs and a gecko, according to the organization.

She said local organizations did “tremendous” work and “lovingly cared for” the rush of animals affected by the fire.

“But what we would want to do is to make sure that there is an even better system for animal evacuation and ways to ensure that pets could be safe,” Chu said, adding that would relieve the burden on places like Pasadena Humane.

Other laws aiming to protect pets

This is not the first time last year’s fires have led to new legislation focused on protecting pets during emergencies.

A new state law known as the FOUND Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, was inspired by Oreo the Pomeranian, who reunited with its Pacific Palisades owner in an emotional, viral video during the Palisades Fire.

The law requires cities and counties to include procedures for rescuing pets during mandatory evacuations in their next emergency plans, which need to be updated every five years to qualify for FEMA assistance.