Kelp Forests
Berkeley, CA
2021, Senior, Performing Arts
Reflection
As a child of the Northern California coast, summers often involved running up and down frigid beaches barefoot, racing friends and dodging the incoming surf, all while dragging behind enormous strands (or whips, as we called them) of washed up kelp. These incredible plants were rare finds; possessing one in your arsenal of beach weaponry was quite respectable. Unfortunately, these incredibly important plants are becoming genuinely scarce in their natural habitat due to human activity. Sea otters, a keystone species of the kelp forest ecosystem, were nearly wiped out by hunters and have yet to regain their original population size. Once widely distributed up and down the Pacific coast from Baja California to the Aleutian Islands, their populations have become patchy and fragile. Not only do otters rely on kelp for shelter, they protect their home from ravenous urchins seeking to devour kelp holdfasts, the anchors used to solidify the plant’s hold to the ground. Without otters to keep the urchin populations in check, these spiky echinoderms have ravaged kelp forests, displacing all the creatures who relied on them for safety, including the few otters that remain. The kelp forest ecosystem has been devastated both by the disruption of its food chain and rising ocean temperatures, which halt upwelling, the process by which cold deep ocean water displaces warmer surface water, depriving kelp of vital nutrients. These factors have lead to kelp forests dropping in size by 95% each year since the mid-2010s. In many areas such as the Sonoma Coast, kelp has all but vanished. It is a dire situation. Humans could greatly benefit from the continued preservation of kelp forests. Their fronds provide ample shelter for juvenile fish maturing into adults, who are then caught by fishermen to be sold. Kelp could also be instrumental in the fight to combat the effects of sea level rise. Their unique carbon sequestering properties allow them to store carbon for hundreds, if not thousands of years, in the ocean. By trapping it in the ocean, kelp helps keep excess carbon from destroying the ozone layer. Therefore, by maintaining kelp populations, not only would a vital ecosystem be restored, but terrestrial ecosystems would be saved from catastrophic flood damage. Seeing an ecosystem integral to my home vanish so quickly is what inspired me to write this piece. In it I wanted to capture the gentle and slow movement of kelp fronds dancing in the water. While the future looks bleak for these majestic plants, I hope my piece will remain a depiction of a well-known ecosystem rather than a testament to a forgotten world.