San Diego Coastkeeper
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Kelp Restoration & Monitoring
Kelp Restoration and Monitoring
Coastkeeper's Kelp Restoration and Monitoring Program is part of a larger regional effort launched by members of the California Coastkeeper Alliance in 2001 to restore the giant kelp habitat along 300 miles of the Southern California back to its historic acreage. California Department of Fish and Game data shows up to 80% of the kelp canopy in Southern California disappeared from 1967 to 1999. Although some areas have increased in kelp abundance, there is an overall decline in kelp canopy along our coast.
During the first year of this three-year project, restoration efforts in Santa Monica and Orange County were successful. This provided critical understanding of the best methodologies to undertake to ensure the project's success. Restoration work has now begun in San Diego and Santa Barbara.
Work in San Diego focuses on two locations - a healthy kelp forest in South Point Loma as our reference, or healthy, area; and a former small kelp forest site in Del Mar, our restoration area. Volunteer divers work with the Coastkeeper biologist to collect valuable information on invertebrates, fish, algae and temperature by diving on a regular basis. Data collected in our healthy reference site will demonstrate what happens in our local "healthy" kelp forests over time.
In our restoration area, baseline data is collected before any kelp is outplanted. After outplanting, the area will continue to be monitored to see if there are any changes in the local ecosystem. Each restoration area may receive several batches of juvenile kelp plants over the course of the project. Kelp for outplanting is obtained from two sources - student run eco-Karts and the California Coastkeeper Alliance Regional Kelp Mariculture Laboratory.
This project has recently received the commitment of funds by a NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Community Based Restoration Grant for an additional three years.