The Kelp Forest :: Part I
My first experience with seaweed was as a kid combing the shores of Newport Beach where I grew up. After storms my brother and I would find clumps of the brown stuff pushed up the beach. We would pick through them to pop the small bubbles attached to the leaves. If the seaweed was fresh and still had its rootball attached, we would break it apart to reveal a mix of tiny animals: brittle stars, baby octopus, urchins, crabs, little shells and worms. The glimpses of marine life that seaweed brought to our shore triggered a childhood curiosity in the ocean and its inhabitants. Yet it was not until I began diving in kelp that I gained a fuller appreciation of the ocean world.
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| Kelp forest. Image: 04651 Species: Macrocystis pyrifera |
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| Jack mackerel schooling amid kelp forest. Image: 00256 Species: Trachurus symmetricus, Macrocystis pyrifera |
Kelp plants growing toward surface and spreading to form a canopy. Image: 01293 Species: Macrocystis pyrifera |
Kelp fronds and forest. Image: 01497 Species: Macrocystis pyrifera |
For more photos of the kelp forest, see http://www.oceanlight.com/html/kelp.html.
