we dropped anchor in the channel islands
to explore California's giant kelp
forests alongside dr. Jenn Cassell and
her team with a focus on marine
conservation they run a large-scale
field based monitoring program assessing
long-term changes due to climate and
anthropogenic impacts you know how kelp
looks like a plant even though it's not
it's an algae and it doesn't have roots
but it has that holdfast and the
holdfast is where the kelp attaches to
the bottom
so each holdfast makes up one individual
kelp plant we'll call it even
and each Stipe it's like a limb almost
the Stipe count that's the measure of
how big the plant is and what we're
gonna do is we're gonna lay out a
transect and that delineates a known
area we count everything in this known
area so that it's comparable right so
we're gonna put down that transect and
then you're gonna cruise along we're
gonna give you a slate and you're gonna
count each Stipe which is gonna
delineate one kelp I'll show you how
when you're in there but how high can
you count
I hope eighteen yeah I hope I get eight
they have kelp larger than some kelp
forests are made up of single Stipe
plants I mean one little Stipe is the
kelp and the whole forest is full of
them and that's the kind of forest you
see it looks like you're swimming
through spaghetti and then some kelp
forests have enormous like 500 Stipe
individuals in very very wave exposed
areas where there's lots of storms and
surge kelp gets ripped out all the time
and those are the forests where you
might see one at a time and in some
other places you'll see these huge huge
big 500 Stipe plants that are usually
more protected they don't get ripped out
in the right conditions giant calc can
grow at an astonishing rate its
ultra-fast growth cycle is offset by a
short lifespan but a brief existence
doesn't overshadow some fantastic
features so let's talk about what help
actually is well kelp is actually a
broad term and it describes lots of
different algae but the one that's most
iconic the one everybody recognizes is
the one you saw under water here in
California the giant kelp the giant
killed it's so majestic it is majestic
and it is giant and it's aptly named
many people think it's a plant but it's
not it's an algae giant kelp is really
fast growing and did you know that in
California where we are here in Southern
California they estimate that it can
grow up to 18 inches a day you can
almost see it growing Wow it will grow
anywhere where the conditions are right
and by right
kelp needs sunlight and it needs
nutrients and it needs a hard bottom to
grab on to but it's not a plant so it
doesn't grab with roots it grabs with
what's called a holdfast
they look like roots they do a little
bit and it was kind of neat while we
were diving that they grabbed ahold of a
rock and sometimes you could move an
entire kelp system right
can you explain why it has the the
buoyant bull be lookin floats so the
buoyant floats allow it to grow up
through the water column and then get to
the sunlight on the top so it really
does need to be up there accessing the
Sun and when you go up to the top it can
grow so much in fact you know it'll grow
and then it'll keep growing and lay
across the top of the water so it
doesn't just grow from the bottom to the
very top and then stop it keeps growing
and that's why you get those kelp beds
that you can see them even from space
helps remarkable features don't stop
with its visibility from outer space in
fact humans have harvested kelp for
hundreds of years to make thousands of
products this super algae has been used
as an ingredient everyday items such as
ice cream beer toothpaste and tires as
Jen explains it also protects our
shorelines we know that the kelp forest
itself provides the home and protection
for a lot of adult forest animals but
one really I think under recognized
value of kelp is the shoreline
protection that a kelp forest can
provide when waves come through all of
that structure from the very top to the
very bottom can lessen the impact of
those waves on the shoreline we should
be thinking a lot about increased storms
and things that are going to happen to
us now with increased hurricanes and
folks are telling us that we really need
to be prepared for more impacts of the
ocean on our shorelines and one way to
do that is to build structures
see walls used concrete but so many
studies are showing that natural
protections are so much healthier for
our environment and actually do a better
job than all these artificial
protections and kelp is considered to be
one of these natural protectors one of
the main things people have to recognize
with the ocean is that it isn't just a
giant system that absorbs all of the
threats to it we can actually alter the
oceans and that's because everything is
connected in the ocean
those kelp forests they're connected to
the offshore waters offshore waters are
connected to the atmosphere and
everything we do we've been sitting at
home in Omaha for example the choices
that you make eventually are going to
impact a system that's going to impact
our oceans oceans are kind of the
lifeblood of the planet no matter where
we live our choices can affect the
planet in ways we once thought
impossible today we know better in each
of us must own a part of the solution to
the problems impacting our planet
you