Staff Members
Tom Ford
Executive Director / Baykeeper
+ Learn MoreLaurie Feldman
Director of Development and Marketing
+ Learn MoreMark Abramson
Director of Watershed Programs
+ Learn MoreTatiana Gaur
Staff Attorney
+ Learn MoreBrian Meux
Kelp Project Coordinator
+ Learn MoreCarolyn Kraft
Community Outreach Coordinator
+ Learn MoreStacie Fejtek
Marine Ecologist
+ Learn MoreHeather Burdick
Watershed Programs Assistant
+ Learn MoreKelp Restoration Program Update
The giant kelp beds off of southern California are one of the most biodiverse communities known to exist in our world’s oceans. Similar to tropical coral reefs, kelp beds are highly productive ecosystems that support a wide array of life. Fully one-fourth of California marine organisms depend on the kelp forests for some part of their life history. The survival of the threatened bocaccio, giant black sea bass, the few remaining sea otters and entire industries are dependant on large, stable kelp beds.
Yet kelp beds continue to face numerous threats. Giant kelp canopies in southern California have been reduced by approximately 89% over the past one hundred years. Once colonizing great expanses of hard substrates and some areas of sandy bottom, these ocean forests now lay in patches, mere remnants of their historic selves. Too many sea urchins, coastal development, pollution, and El Niño events have contributed to the decline in California’s magnificent kelp forests. The over harvest of key sea urchin predators within kelp beds namely the southern sea otter, California spiny lobster and California sheephead has destabilized the kelp ecosystem. Now sea urchins dominate the rocks rather than kelp and hundreds of species are resultantly displaced. This leaves our coastal waters more prone to invasion by non native species, increases coastal erosion and results in the loss of recreational and commercial opportunities.
The Santa Monica Baykeeper established the Kelp Restoration and Monitoring Project in 1996. The challenges of restoring and monitoring this building block of a healthy California ocean community are met through a combination of fieldwork, community action and education. A Technical Advisory Committee composed of expert marine biologists and kelp ecologists assisted the Santa Monica Baykeeper in developing a monitoring and restoration plan for the project.
The Kelp Project relies on volunteer divers from local communities, who assist in research, monitoring and restoration of historic kelp beds off of Malibu and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Since the projects inception thousands of hours have been donated by volunteer divers. The direct results of these efforts are the restoration of thousands of square meters of kelp forest, a better understanding of the status of the nearshore habitat of Santa Monica Bay and the first steps towards the widespread recovery of our coastal kelp forest.
Click Here for the Kelp Dive Calendar
Click Here for the 2007 Training Flyer
Click Here for the 2006 Annual Report
Click Here for a video to learn more about the Kelp Restoration Project.
Download our kelp flyer here
Interested in becoming a volunteer diver? We are looking for rescue certified divers to help the kelp restoration effort. You will also need CPR, First Aid and Emergency Oxygen Administration certifications. Please contact Brian Meux at (310) 305-9645 x7 or bmeux@smbaykeeper.org for more information.