CBRISC (pronounced "SeaBrisk") stands for Conservation and Biodiversity of the Rocky Intertidal of Southern California and is aimed at assessing the health of Southern California's coastal marine environment. "Whites Point was at one time noted for its Haliotis cracherodii [black abalone], but continuous collecting has almost despoiled it of these shells." -- Mrs. M. Burton Williamson. 1892. An annotated list of the shells of San Pedro Bay and Vicinity. “Collectors who have collected from Mission Bay for years report the entire disappearance of certain forms from the regions wherein they had previously found them common.” -- R. Morrison. 1928. A study of molluscs found at Mission Bay San Diego, California. “The gigantic horse mussel . . . up to 9 inches in length, is no longer common, its depletion being the result, probably, of too many chowders, too many conchologists, and the animal’s presumably slow rate of growth.” -- Ricketts et al. 1968. Between Pacific Tides (4th edition). As these quotes illustrate, for many years there has been an impression that a growing human population has been damaging the health of California's coastal environment. The primary aim of the CBRISC project is to test this impression by quantifying any changes that have occurred over the past 150 years in animals living in rocky intertidal environments, and by determining to what extent these changes are due to human activities. This site provides background information on threats to coastal marine ecosystems, descriptions of the methods we are using to assess the health of Southern California's coastal ecosystems, and access to the historical species occurrence data that we are gathering through a search page, interactive maps (under construction), and a complete cross-referenced list of rocky intertidal species and localities throughout Southern California (under construction).