Decimated kelp forests in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary will benefit from much-needed restoration efforts after President Joe Biden signed into law on March 16 a package of funding for community-based projects—the first since a ban on federal earmarks in 2011—that included $2 million for the beleaguered seaweed.
The funding, championed by Congressman Jared Huffman and Senator Alex Padilla, will focus on planting bull kelp, removing purple urchins by divers and community engagement. It’s the most significant chunk of money directed toward the collapse of over 90 percent of kelp forests along the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts, a problem that began in 2014.
“We are so grateful and so excited,” said Francesca Koe, a diver and member of the Greater Farallones Association’s advisory council who co-authored a recovery plan for kelp and has been advocating congressional representatives for three years for such funding. She said the investment will support not only wildlife but fishing, recreation, tourism and more.
Bull kelp forests are crucial habitat—that is, food or shelter—for other species, including sea otters and sea urchins. “There’s so much that depends on what was once dense bull kelp forests off our coasts. This is a critical issue for us,” said Karen Reyna, the resource protection coordinator for the sanctuary, which will administer the funds in conjunction with the Greater Farallones Association and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The decimation of the kelp forests was fueled by a mix of issues, including a warm-water “blob” that plagued the Pacific Ocean in 2014 and the die-off of sunflower sea stars struck by a wasting disease. That die-off led to a quick rise in purple urchin populations and the consequent appearance of so-called urchin barrens, areas where dense populations have overgrazed kelp. The purple urchins can persist for exceptionally long periods of time, capable of living without eating for years.
The kelp die-off and the explosion of purple urchins have been major factors in the struggle of the red urchin and red abalone, two important fisheries. The value of the red urchin fishery has plummeted, and the recreational red abalone fishery, first closed by the Fish and Game Commission in 2017 due to population declines, will remain shuttered till at least 2026.
In the last few years, the marine sanctuary, in partnership with other groups, has undertaken preparatory work for the kelp restoration. That has included research aboard vessels and drone-based surveys. Ms. Reyna said that in 2019, the Greater Farallones Association, the Nature Conservancy and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation “basically initiated one of the largest marine mapping projects in California” using unmanned aircraft systems. The methodology will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and the findings could help people all over the world use such methods for restoration, she said.
The sanctuary’s kelp restoration program has also been conducting other work and studies, including in Drakes Bay, said Rietta Hohman, the kelp recovery program coordinator. Starting this spring and lasting through 2024, the program, in conjunction with Sonoma State University, will survey the kelp canopy, study the benthic habitat and test different methods of out-planting kelp.
But the sanctuary has been especially focused on finding the best sites along the Sonoma and Mendocino coast for restoration. The $2 million in funding, though substantial, can’t fund the removal of every single purple urchin, or the replanting of every single area where bull kelp has died off.
The criteria for selecting sites include access to the areas, especially to ensure the safety of divers, and the level of cultural importance, such as areas where there used to be red abalone or red urchin fisheries.
The sanctuary also wants to reduce urchin densities at sites where bull kelp forests have persisted, Ms. Hohman said, since those areas show some element of natural resilience. The hope is to support “oases” to provide crucial kelp habitat.
There have been previous efforts to remove purple urchins. Ms. Koe, the diver and member of the Greater Farallones Association’s advisory council, said that recreational divers who could no longer dive for abalone have pitched in for removal efforts. The Ocean Protection Council gave the organization Reef Check over $600,000 for commercial divers to remove purple urchin, also with help from Fish and Wildlife. Ms. Koe said efforts have been “positive and productive,” and that especially around Fort Bragg, where commercial divers have focused, changes are “very noticeable.”
The earmarked federal funds have to be spent relatively quickly, likely by the fall of 2023, Ms. Hohman said. The plan is to work intensively now while utilizing the money as a kind of “seed funding” to attract more money, hopefully extending the work into a five- or six-year project.
Ms. Hohman pointed out that the field of kelp restoration is pretty new; much is known about terrestrial restoration, but underwater efforts are more nascent and the work is risky. But she is hopeful. Bull kelp can re-establish quickly; when conditions are good, the seaweed can grow 10 inches in a day. If good habitat can be provided, “it will come back,” she said.