The loss of kelp has put the family's future at risk.

Jacques Cousteau once said that California's Channel Islands were one of the most beautiful places he'd ever dove. While it's a carefully protected national park, and all fishing is highly regulated, wider environmental changes have devastated the region's vast kelp forests. Without kelp, the Urchins fail to produce healthy roe or 'uni', bringing an end to a regional economy, and for fisherman like Conner, an entire way of life.

Conner's family has lived off the ocean since the 1970s

A career as a fisherman has always been a tough-trade, demanding both physical and mental fortitude to survive. Few types of fishing are as intense as Urchin and Sea Cucumber diving, where solo divers work for hours in freezing waters at 60 foot depths to harvest a profitable catch. Like his dad before him, Conner works completely alone, running tubes of oxygen from his boat down to his suit on the ocean floor. Isolated underwater, the risk of being injured, attacked by a shark or lost at sea is a real threat, and requires constant management and awareness.

Conner is committed to preserving the skill and joy of his craft.

Success as an urchin diver requires an incredible investment of resources, time and effort - and like most forms of hunting and fishing, is typically developed over years of informal training from older generations. Conner's goal is to pass his knowledge and love of the ocean down to his kids, like his dad did for him. While the ocean will always remain a part of the family's life, the challenging economics of the Urchin business, may force Conner and the few other full-time Urchin divers into new land-based careers in the years to come.