Following in the wading boot impressions of local marine biologists like Julia Platt and Ed Ricketts, Dr. John Pearse is a humble hero with simple goals: Keep an eye on our oceans, and get kids curious.


A retired marine biologist who spent the majority of his career researching and teaching the reproductive ecology of marine invertebrates at University of California-Santa Cruz, Pearse knows the intertidal zones of Monterey Bay as well as anyone. Counting and recording the movements of sea anemones, sponges, sea stars, limpets and other rock-clinging animals of note was his forte for more than 30 years.


“When I retired, the data we were collecting then stopped, and the people at [UC] Santa Cruz decided not to continue it. So, I thought, this is something we can get high school kids to do,” Pearse says.


In 2002, with the help of a few colleagues, Pearse started a small program that trained middle and high school students on intertidal sea life and set them to work collecting data.


That small program is now known as the Long-Term Monitoring Program and Experiential Training for Students (LiMPETS), and is overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Under the program, 3,500 teachers and students from Marin County to San Diego County collect data from 600 miles of coastline, including four national marine sanctuaries.


Ann Wasser, a CSU Monterey Bay alum, was recently hired as coordinator for the Monterey Bay arm of LiMPETS at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. She says she couldn’t do her job if John wasn’t here.


“He is so modest in the impact he has had in his research and teaching,” she says. “The kids meet John and see him in his hip waders walking the intertidal, and they get to see what a scientist really does.”


The man is humble, almost to a fault. He gives credit freely to those around him, taking none for himself, being content in simply doing what he loves and sharing that love with kids who might not have gotten the opportunity otherwise.


“He’s one of my heroes,” Wasser says. “I look forward to every day I get to hang out with him.”


Pearse started the program not only to continue his data counts or to get kids interested in marine biology, but also to engage them, get them out in the field, and show them that “science isn’t just people in white coats.”


“Whether they become a biologist or not is not the objective. The objective is to get people curious,” he explains.


Though hard-liners may argue the amateur-generated data isn’t viable in real-world scientific applications, Pearse is confident the counts will one day be an invaluable tool in gauging the health of California’s coast. His confidence looks to be well placed thanks to an online database easily accessible by agencies like the California Department of Fish and Game. Each year, it seems, the kid-collected data is gaining more scientific credibility. In 2007 LiMPETS data was used to assess the environmental impact of the Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay.


Interestingly enough, it was this type of disaster that spurred Pearse’s very first counts on the Santa Cruz coast in 1971. Two years earlier, an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara left scientists with no way of comparing the environment from before and after the spill due to lack of monitoring. 


The young Pearse said he wasn’t going to let that happen here. Talk about determination.