PACIFIC GROVE – The bull kelp forests of the Pacific Coast began to decline in 2013. A perfect storm of events —a climate-induced marine heatwave, a strong El Niño season and the explosion in population of a voracious kelp eater — obliterated the regional kelp populace by 95% in 2017.
But according to long-time ocean advocates Natasha Benjamin and Ana Blanco, “Kelp is having a moment right now.”
Benjamin, the associate director of Blue Frontier, an ocean advocacy group, and Blanco, the executive director of the International Ocean Film Foundation, are determined to sound the alarm bell and restore the coast’s kelp forests. Their documentary, “Sequoias of the Sea,” is screening at Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds at 2 p.m. Saturday. It portrays the great kelp decline as well as the impact it has had on a small town in Mendocino County, the greater California coast and the world at large.
“We want people to be aware of how important kelp forests are to coastal communities, to our intertidal coastal ecosystems,” Benjamin says. “Kelp is the new coral.”
The problem is both global and local in scale.
Benjamin says, “Monterey has a deep connection to kelp,” noting the iconic display of a giant kelp forest at the Aquarium. The county’s giant kelp have fared better than the North Coast’s bull kelp because sea otters prey on purple urchins – which eat kelp – keeping their populations in check and because their longer lifespans allow them to better withstand seasonal environmental changes. But they too are at risk from climate change.
The years 2014 through 2016 saw unusually warm temperatures in the Pacific Ocean due to the warming effect of the weather pattern El Niño and increased surface temperatures from climate change that resulted in a two-year marine heatwave. Kelp and other algae species with large surface areas are especially prone to stress from environmental change. As they were exposed to the warmer temperatures, kelp’s cellular structures began to thin out and weaken, until all but about 5% of kelp in the California Coast had withered away in a matter of years.
Benjamin says, “This is one local example (of the impact of climate change) here in Northern California. . . but these extreme events of biodiversity loss are happening all over the world.”
UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience evolutionary biologist Malin Pinsky’s research is driven by the understanding of the severity of these kelp die-offs. Pinsky researches kelp genomics, believing kelp resilience is essential to the Coast’s fisheries and ecosystems, tourist economy and Indigenous peoples. Restoration is, “really important for the future of our state,” he says.
For the small town of Fort Bragg in Mendocino County, the blow is especially crushing. One of the snapshots of life after the kelp decline that “Sequoias of the Sea” depicts is the impact on the local abalone population. Abalone, a type of marine snail, live among intertidal kelp forests and graze on it for sustenance.
A chain reaction ensued after the kelp forest decline. With limited grazing availability, abalone were threatened and the state Fish and Game Commission shut down the red abalone fishery for the 2018 season. It hasn’t been reopened for fishing since.
Abalone are sacred to the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, for food, regalia and ceremony. They are also central to commercial and tourist life on the North Coast. A beloved local dive shop shut down as the tourism and fishing industry suffered.
Another local component of this global crisis is sea star wasting disease. Right around the time of the marine heatwave that rocked kelp forests, a plague all but extinguished 20 of the Pacific Coast’s species of sea stars, including several in Monterey Bay. Sea stars are the main predator of purple sea urchins. Unencumbered by predation, the purple urchins multiplied with abandon and devoured kelp along the coast, abetting the climate-induced crisis. The origins of the disease were eventually discovered in August.
A number of local organizations are supporting the screening at Asilomar, such as Giant Giant Kelp Restoration Project, California Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Middlebury Institute’s Center for the Blue Economy, Sea Otter Savvy and the Surfrider Monterey County Chapter.
Blanco and Benjamin’s film highlights the local progress made in the two main prongs of kelp restoration: removing purple sea urchins and replenishing kelp in the ocean. At the North Coast KelpFest!, The Nature Conservancy recently demonstrated early success in their work suppressing purple urchins and introducing kelp in Big River in the city of Mendocino.
At the regional level, Pinsky is working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to explore the genetic variants in kelp that are most resilient to heatwaves.
Benjamin and Blanco encourage filmgoers and Californians alike to get involved in kelp advocacy. Their film’s website (https://sequoiasofthesea.org/) has a list of resources for taking action as well as their newsletter sign-up.
Blanco says, “I think the main thing is to raise awareness about what’s happening.”
