Atlas9 min read
San Juan Islands: Bull Kelp in the Salish Sea's Racing Channels
Between Vancouver Island and mainland Washington, the San Juans thread bull kelp beds through tidal rapids. A Coastal Atlas guide to the archipelago.
Tom Okafor ·
Coastal Atlas
Guides to the world’s kelp coastlines — the Great Southern Reef, Monterey Bay, Hokkaido, Norway, Patagonia — their ecology, seasons and stories.
257 articles · Browse the Coastal Atlas map →
Atlas7 min read
Sardinia: Cystoseira Forests on the Granite and Karst of the Tyrrhenian
A granite-and-limestone island ringed by brown-algal canopies, Posidonia meadows and marine reserves — the Mediterranean's canopy kelp story, up close.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas9 min read
Senja and Arctic Norway's Mainland: Kelp Where the Fjords Meet the Barents Sea
Senja and Norway's Barents coast grow clear-water Arctic kelp patrolled by orcas. A regional guide to the kelp, cod and whales of the high north.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas12 min read
The Seto Inland Sea: Japan's Sheltered Cradle of Seaweed Farming
Japan's Seto Inland Sea: the cradle of nori farming, wakame rafts and Hiroshima oysters, the isoyake paradox of clean water, and the Satoumi renewal.
Naomi Reyes ·
Atlas9 min read
The Shetland Islands: Kelp, Otters and the North Atlantic Front
Shetland grows some of Britain's finest kelp forests: clear northern water, Eurasian otters and an intact sea culture on the North Atlantic front.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Sicily: The Mediterranean's Great Algal Forests Around Volcanic Isles
Sicily's volcanic islands carry the Mediterranean's richest Cystoseira forests — brown canopies in coral-clear water. A coastal atlas guide to seeing them.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Sitka Sound: Herring, Kelp and Cultures of the Inside Passage
Herring spawn on kelp, whales hunt the shoals, and Tlingit stewardship runs millennia deep — a guide to the kelp ecosystems of Sitka Sound, Alaska.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
The Snares and Antipodes: New Zealand's Subantarctic Kelp Wilderness
A coastal atlas guide to New Zealand's subantarctic islands — surf-gripped bull kelp, endemic penguins and parakeets, sea lion recovery, and the mouse eradication that worked.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
The Snares: Bull Kelp in New Zealand's Subantarctic
Granite islands wrapped in storm-built bull kelp, penguins found nowhere else and no landings allowed: inside the Snares Islands' kelp coast, 200 km south of Bluff.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas8 min read
The Sonoma Coast: After the Bull Kelp
Sonoma's coast lost most of its bull kelp a decade ago. A guide to the collapse, the abalone closure, and where the forest is quietly returning.
Jack Callum ·
Atlas9 min read
South Georgia: Giant Kelp at the Edge of the Ice
A ring of giant kelp fringes South Georgia's glaciated mountains — and around it, whales, seals and penguins are crawling back from industrial ruin.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas8 min read
Korea's East Sea: The Ecklonia cava Kelp Forests and the Haenyeo
Where warm and cold currents meet off Korea's east coast, Ecklonia cava forests are being rebuilt — and the haenyeo women divers still work the sea.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas7 min read
St Abbs to Eyemouth: Scotland's Voluntary Marine Reserve and Its Kelp Reefs
On the Berwickshire coast, one of Britain's first voluntary marine reserves protects tangle kelp forest, wolf-fish dens and clear North Sea water.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Norway's Taretrawling Coast: How Industrial Harvest Shaped a Kelp Nation
Norway turned wild kelp into an industry with trawls and a five-year rotation. The history, the ecosystem debate and what taretrawling taught the world.
Naomi Reyes ·
Atlas7 min read
Strait of Georgia: Kelp, Islands and Estuary Water Between Vancouver Island and the Mainland
Between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland, the Fraser River's plume shapes bull kelp beds, herring spawns and whale water. A coastal atlas guide.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
The Strait of Juan de Fuca: Bull Kelp Where Two Seas Mix
At the Salish Sea's front door, Pacific upwelling meets inland outflow over bull kelp forests and tidal races. A coastal atlas guide to the strait.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas9 min read
Svalbard: Kelp Forests in the High Arctic
At 78°N, Svalbard's fjords hold kelp forests in polar light, growing under sea ice and beside glaciers. A guide to the High Arctic's underwater forests — and what's changing.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas9 min read
Sydney's Coast: The Crayweed Comeback Story
Sydney lost its crayweed forests to sewage in the 1980s — then brought them back. A guide to the city's kelp, golden kelp meadows and dive reefs.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Sydney's Kelp Coast: A Walker's Guide to the City's Intertidal Rock Platforms
Between Sydney's beaches lie sandstone rock platforms striped with ankle-deep seaweed. A walker's guide to the city's intertidal kelp coast, south to north.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
Taiwan's Northeast Coast: Kelp, Longdong and the Kuroshio Edge
Where the warm Kuroshio meets the southern limit of the kelp world — Sargassum forests, agar harvesters, the Longdong diving coast and Keelung's protected reefs.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas9 min read
Tristan da Cunha: Kelp Around the Loneliest Island
Giant kelp forests, rockhopper penguins and a lobster fishery that funds a town: a guide to Tristan da Cunha, the South Atlantic's most remote kelp coast.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Tristan da Cunha: The Kelp Coast at the End of the Map
What the kelp ring around the world's most remote inhabited island actually looks like — island by island, season by season — and how anyone ever gets to see it.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas8 min read
Wellington's South Coast: Capital City Kelp at the Edge of Cook Strait
Taputeranga Marine Reserve, the Island Bay snorkel trail, orcas in the strait: a guide to Wellington's kelp-fringed south coast, ten minutes from the CBD.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas9 min read
Vancouver Island's Wild West Coast: Kelp, Surge and the Edge of the Shelf
Beyond the famous sounds lie full-swell reefs, shelf-edge upwelling and wilderness kelp. A guide to Vancouver Island's outer coast — and how to reach it.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·