Bull kelp forests thrive in Oregon’s cold, nutrient-rich waters near shore. But rising ocean temperatures, along with overgrazing by purple sea urchins, threaten kelp’s survival and ability to provide essential habitat for fish, marine mammals and birds.
Photo: Justin Myers
written by Kerry Newberry
The Oregon Kelp Alliance brings together divers, scientists, tribal members, drone pilots, eco-tour guides and chefs to protect and maintain kelp forests. Captain Dave Lacey and his team from South Coast Tours make kelp and urchin education a regular part of tours.
Photo: Justin Myers
Emerging from the tiny coastal town of Port Orford, a dedicated crew of marine scientists, commercial urchin divers, conservationists, tribal members, tour guides, drone pilots, SCUBA and free divers, and chefs have rallied together from various perspectives, but with a shared goal: to protect and restore kelp forests along the Oregon Coast.
A research scientist comes up for air while snorkeling in Nellies Cove. In addition to removing urchins, research divers have plans to enhance the kelp forest by planting kelp and potentially translocating urchin-eating sea stars. Trained scuba divers can contact ORKA about participating in a kelp-restoration project near them.
Photo: Justin Myers
The Oregon Kelp Alliance (ORKA) formed in 2017, when divers and scientists first noticed a decline in bull kelp forests near Orford Reef and Nellies Cove on Oregon’s south coast. “Kelp forests provide critical habitat for a diversity of marine life and absorb large amounts of carbon,” said Tom Calvanese, the station manager for the Port Orford Field Station and director of ORKA. “And in many places, we are losing them.”
One can often see gray whales feeding on the edges of a kelp forest, a hot spot for mysid shrimp (a type of zooplankton). ORKA’s current research uses aerial drones to survey kelp forests and areas where there should be kelp forests. This photo shows what a healthy kelp forest looks like from above.
Photo: Dr. Sara Hamilton
The rapid decline of kelp forests is a global phenomenon—a result of rising ocean temperatures, along with overgrazing by species like spiny purple sea urchins, which can mow through an entire kelp forest in one season and turn an area into an urchin barren.
Tom Calvanese, an urchin diver turned fisheries scientist, is also the station manager for the Port Orford Field Station for Oregon State University and the director of the Oregon Kelp Alliance. Here, he’s on an urchin-monitoring dive near Port Orford Heads State Park, one of the areas experiencing urchin barrens. When an urchin population dominates due to a lack of natural predators, they graze on kelp to the point that little or no kelp remains. The thriving ecosystem and biodiversity hot spot that kelp provides disappears, and instead you see only purple sea urchins.
Photo: Justin Myers
These spectacular underwater forests are biodiversity hot spots and sustain thousands of marine creatures from tiny shrimp and colorful sea stars to fish, seals and whales. It’s a world that few of us see. “What we’ve learned in the last few years is how important it is to capture underwater imagery of these organisms and systems,” said Calvanese.
A sunflower sea star is perched in Nellies Cove near Port Orford. More than a decade ago, a disease called “sea star wasting disease” killed billions of sea stars along the Eastern Pacific Coast from Mexico to Alaska and wiped out Oregon’s population of sunflower sea stars. While many species of sea stars have since rebounded—from ochre sea stars to the morning sun star—the urchin-eating sunflower sea star is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and is currently being considered for listing by NOAA Fisheries.
Photo: Caroline Rice
Most visitors to the coast might see a pile of bull kelp (called “wrack”) when winter storms wash up the long fronds and stipes that form lines along beaches. “But it’s when we get divers and photographers below the surface, that’s when we can bring the world of kelp forests to life for everyone,” he said. Learn more at www.oregonkelp.com.
The red abalone depends on drift kelp for food. In areas dominated by an overpopulation of sea urchins, these sea snails, already experiencing low populations, have a difficult time competing for food.
Photo: Bob Pool
