Structured profiles of the species that build, inhabit and depend on kelp forests — from giant kelp to sea otters, urchins to weedy seadragons.
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Striped shore crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes) species profile: the bold, fast, green-striped crab of Pacific rocky shores — sprinter, grazer and lab superstar.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Meet the striped surfperch (Embiotoca lateralis), the copper-striped, blue-flecked surfperch of rocky shores and kelp beds from Alaska to Baja California.
Tom Okafor ·
Stubby rose anemone (Urticina coriacea) species profile: a leathery, crimson anemone of northern rock and cobble, from Arctic seas to California kelp forests.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
It sleeps all day in kelp-bed crevices, hunts by night, and inflates like a balloon when threatened. Meet the swell shark of the Pacific coast.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Laminaria hyperborea builds the kelp forests of Europe's cold coasts — with stiff stipes standing like an undersea grove. Biology, harvest history, ecology.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Meet the kelp perch, a live-bearing surfperch that hovers in the kelp canopy, sips drifting plankton and picks parasites straight off larger fish.
Tom Okafor ·
Meet the treefish (Sebastes serriceps) — the tiger-barred golden rockfish of California kelp reefs: identification, habitat, behaviour and conservation.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Turf-forming algae are the low, weedy mats that move in when kelp forests fall — and can hold a reef in place. A group profile of the kelp forest's most stubborn rival.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Octopus bimaculoides is a small den-dwelling octopus of California's rocky kelp reefs, named for the blue-ringed ocelli behind its eyes. Habits and habitat.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Necora puber — red eyes, velvety shell, paddle legs and a famous temper — is the reef's feistiest crab from Norway to Iberia, and a quiet kelp-forest worker.
Tom Okafor ·
The vermilion rockfish is a deep-bodied red rockfish of the mid-water reef zone. Identification, biology, barotrauma and the fishery story.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Apostichopus parvimensis vacuums detritus off California reefs day and night, cycling nutrients for the whole kelp forest. Biology, defences and the fishery.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The white abalone crashed so fast that by the time it was protected, wild adults were too far apart to breed. Captive breeding is testing a way back.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The white sea bass is California's great croaker — a metre-and-a-half predator of kelp edge and open water, nearly lost, fighting back. Biology, fishery and comeback.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Pale, decorator-clad and living on open sand rather than reef: how the white sea urchin feeds, spreads and quietly differs from its barren-making relatives.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
White-spotted rose anemone (Urticina lofotensis) species profile: a scarlet anemone dotted with white, named for Norway's Lofoten islands and common on kelp-coast walls.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Yelloweye rockfish can live more than a century on a single reef. Identification, the barotrauma problem, and the rules helping this red giant recover.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Black abalone once blanketed California's rocky intertidal, then disease and poaching erased most of them. Inside an unlikely marine recovery story.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Black oystercatcher Haematopus bachmani: the rock-loving sentinel of the Pacific coast — habits, tiny population and what it reveals.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
The black oystercatcher lives its whole life on kelp-fringed rock, hammering limpets and mussels. Ecology, bill lore, breeding and its role as an indicator.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
The blue rockfish (Sebastes mystinus) is a blue-black schooling mainstay of Pacific kelp forests. Biology, fishery and what its presence tells us.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
The bluebanded goby is a thumb-length fish in neon red and electric blue, and it can change sex both ways. Meet California's most dazzling reef resident.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Brittle stars are the kelp forest's most numerous residents — five-armed floor-dwellers by the thousand. Learn how they differ from sea stars and why they matter.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Seven gill slits, one rear-set dorsal fin, and fossils deep in its past: the broadnose sevengill is the ancient apex cruiser of temperate kelp coasts worldwide.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·