Atlas8 min read
Amsterdam Island: Kelp at the Bottom of the World
Giant kelp at the warm edge of its range, albatrosses that breed nowhere else, and a scientists-only island: a guide to the kelp coast of Amsterdam Island.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
#coastal-atlas
57 articles
Atlas7 min read
Kelp and Seaweed Forests of the Azores: A Coastal Atlas Guide
Nine volcanic islands in the mid-Atlantic hold warm-water seaweed forests instead of true kelp — plus limpets, groupers and mobulas. An atlas guide to the Azores underwater.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
The Azores: Volcanic Reefs and Kelp at the Atlantic's Midpoint
Nine islands on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge offer lava arches, seamount pinnacles and deep-water kelp gardens — a diver's atlas of volcanic reef ecology in the Azores.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas8 min read
Barkley Sound and Bamfield: A Working Fjord of Kelp and Research
How a boardwalk village at the end of a gravel road became Canada's marine-science capital, and how to visit the kelp fjord it has studied for fifty years.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas8 min read
Bay of Plenty: Warm-Current Kelp on New Zealand's Northern Edge
A Coastal Atlas guide to the Bay of Plenty — golden kelp at its warm limit, volcanic islands, subtropical fish visitors, Moutohorā's sanctuary, seasons and how to see it all.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas8 min read
The Black Sea: Cystoseira Forests at the Brackish Limit
In the brackish, landlocked Black Sea, Cystoseira barbata once built kelp-like forests on shallow rock. Eutrophication broke them; now the coast is rebuilding.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas7 min read
Sweden's Bohuslän Archipelago: Kelp Forests of the Skagerrak Coast
An atlas guide to Bohuslän — Sweden's pink-granite archipelago of tangle kelp forests, lobster grounds, cold-water coral and 6,000 islands in the Skagerrak.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas8 min read
Arraial do Cabo: Brazil's Upwelling Kelp Outlier
On a headland east of Rio de Janeiro, wind-driven upwelling chills subtropical water enough for deep kelp beds — Brazil's strangest and most surprising forest.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas11 min read
Canary Islands: Kelp Forests on the Edge of the Desert
Off the Sahara's shoulder, the Canary Islands grow seaweed forests in upwelled water — until heatwaves and sea urchins turn them. An atlas of kelp's southern edge.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas11 min read
The Channel Islands (UK): Kelp at the Warm Edge of the English Range
Jersey, Guernsey, Sark and Alderney: Europe's wildest tidal range, the ormer fishery, the ancient vraic harvest and Britain's southernmost — and warmest — kelp reefs.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas10 min read
The Patagonian Channels: Kelp Inside Chile's Drowned Mountains
Inside Chile's Patagonian channels, the Andes go under the sea — and sheltered waters grow the most extensive giant kelp forests in South America, beside a salmon boom.
Jack Callum ·
Atlas9 min read
Clayoquot Sound: Kelp Beds Beneath the Ancient Rainforest
Fjords, surf beaches and kelp forests in one of Canada's most storied sounds — marine life, Nuu-chah-nulth stewardship and a famous conservation history.
Jack Callum ·
Atlas9 min read
The Commander Islands: Russia's Kelp Outpost of Otters and Fog
Between Kamchatka and the Aleutians, two fog-bound islands hold rich kelp forests, sea otters — and the grave of the ocean's most famous extinction.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas10 min read
Cook Strait: Kelp in the Middle of New Zealand
Between New Zealand's two islands, ferocious tides mix subtropical and subantarctic water into kelp reefs of rare variety — Wellington to the Marlborough Sounds.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
The Coromandel Coast: Kelp, Snapper Nurseries and New Zealand's Marine Reserve Frontier
A Coastal Atlas guide to the Coromandel Peninsula — golden kelp reefs, the Cathedral Cove marine reserve, kina barren science, offshore islands, visibility seasons and access.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas9 min read
Glacier Bay, Alaska: New Kelp Forests on the Front Lines of Retreating Ice
Two centuries of retreating ice opened fjords that kelp, otters and whales are still colonising — a guide to Glacier Bay's young, fast-changing underwater forests.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas8 min read
Great Barrier Island: Auckland's Wild Kelp Frontier
Aotea Great Barrier Island guards the outer Hauraki Gulf — golden kelp reefs, kina barrens, dark skies and a community living at the edge of Auckland's weather.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
Kelp Forests of the Great Bear Rainforest: A Coastal Atlas Guide
A coastal atlas guide to the kelp coast of the Great Bear Rainforest — BC's wild archipelago of bull kelp, giant kelp, sea otters, spirit bears and deep human tenure.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas12 min read
Hakai Passage: Cold Green Water on British Columbia's Central Coast
A coastal atlas guide to BC's Central Coast and Hakai Passage — double-canopy kelp, returning sea otters, herring spawn and deep human history in cold green water.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
Howe Sound: The Kelp Comeback Fjord at Vancouver's Doorstep
Howe Sound recovered from a century of industrial pollution to glass sponge reefs, returning orcas and thickening bull kelp — an atlas guide to BC's comeback fjord.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Hudson Bay's Kelp Fringe: Subarctic Forests on the Churchill Coast
Sugar kelp under six months of sea ice, belugas in the estuary and a lengthening summer: a guide to the subarctic kelp fringe of Hudson Bay's Churchill coast.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas7 min read
The Isles of Scilly: Kelp, Seals and England's Atlantic Edge
Twenty-eight miles offshore of Land's End, the Scillies hold England's clearest water, warmest kelp reefs, great grey seal swims and some of British diving's classics.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas10 min read
Jeju Island: The Haenyeo Coast and Korea's Seaweed Culture
Jeju's volcanic coast is Korea's marine frontier — home of the haenyeo women divers, wakame and kombu farms, and a sea warming faster than almost anywhere on Earth.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
Kamchatka: Kelp Forests on the Pacific's Wild Far Shore
A coastal atlas guide to Kamchatka's kelp forests: volcanic coasts, otter-held reefs, salmon-fed waters, and one of the least-disturbed kelp ecosystems on Earth.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas9 min read
Kapiti Island: A Marine Reserve Inside Wellington's Weather
Kapiti Island rises out of Cook Strait's tidal machinery — a predator-free bird sanctuary above water, and protected kelp reefs, seals and blue cod below.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas11 min read
Kelp Forests of Portugal: The Southern Edge of the Range
A coastal atlas guide to Portugal's kelp forests — upwelling-fed golden kelp at its southern Atlantic limit, from the Minho to the Arrábida, and what heat is doing to it.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas11 min read
Kerguelen: Giant Kelp in the Sub-Antarctic
A coastal atlas guide to the Kerguelen Islands — vast giant kelp beds at 49°S, elephant seals and king penguins, iron-fed blooms, and the wildest kelp wilderness few will see.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
The Kermadec Islands: Where New Zealand's Kelp Meets the Tropics
1,000 km northeast of Auckland, the Kermadec Islands hold kelp at its warm edge — volcanoes, tropical fish and one of New Zealand's great marine reserves.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas10 min read
The Leeuwin Capes: Kelp at the Edge of the Tropics
Where a warm current runs the wrong way, kelp forests hold the tropical edge — the Margaret River capes, their wildlife and the heatwave that changed them.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas11 min read
Lüderitz, Namibia: Benguela Kelp on a Desert Coast
Off Namibia's windswept diamond coast, the Lüderitz upwelling cell brews some of the coldest, richest water in the Benguela — and a desert-shore kelp forest.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas10 min read
Lundy Island: England's Original Marine Reserve and Its Kelp
Granite, grey seals and kelp jungle in the Bristol Channel — England's first marine reserve, first no-take zone and some of Britain's best diving.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas9 min read
Magdalena Bay: Kelp at the Edge of the Mangroves
Where the California Current's kelp fringe meets Baja's mangrove lagoons — a meeting of two worlds, winter whales and the southern frontier of giant kelp.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas9 min read
Northumberland: Kelp, Castles and the Farne Islands
Sandstone headlands, dolerite islands and big North Sea tides — England's northeast coast grows fine kelp forests beneath some of its oldest castles.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas12 min read
The Otago Peninsula: Royal Albatross Above, Bull Kelp Below
The Otago Peninsula stacks a mainland albatross colony, sea lions and penguins above forests of giant kelp and rimurapa. A guide to New Zealand's wildlife headland.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Phillip Island: Kelp Beds Below the Penguin Parade
Under the Bass Strait swell off Victoria's Phillip Island, golden kelp reefs feed seals, whales and the little penguins of Australia's most famous wildlife show.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas9 min read
The Poor Knights Islands: Kelp at the Subtropical Boundary
Off New Zealand's Tutukaka Coast, the Poor Knights Islands protect the clearest, warmest kelp forests in the country — and fish that belong to a warmer sea entirely.
Tom Okafor ·
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 ·
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 ·
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 ·
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 ·
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 ·
Atlas10 min read
The Aleutian Islands: Where Science Learned What Otters Are For
A 1,900-kilometre arc of volcano, fog and kelp strung between Alaska and Siberia — the coastline that taught ecologists how sea otters hold kelp forests together.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas10 min read
Haida Gwaii: Kelp Forests at the Edge of the Continent
Ninety kilometres of black ocean off northern British Columbia, an archipelago of giant kelp, ancient villages and Haida co-management — kelp country at its most sovereign.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Kelp Forests of Monterey Bay: A Coastal Atlas Guide
Monterey Bay holds some of North America's most accessible giant kelp forests — a canyon-fed, otter-patrolled ecosystem you can dive, kayak or watch from shore.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas10 min read
The Olympic Coast: Washington's Wilderness Kelp Frontier
No towns, no coast highway, 135 wild miles of rock and bull kelp under the Olympic mountains — the most intact temperate marine wilderness left in the lower 48.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas10 min read
Vancouver Island's Wild West Coast: Kelp, Otters and the Pacific Rim
Barkley Sound, Clayoquot Sound and the full weight of the open Pacific: how Vancouver Island's west coast became Canada's kelp laboratory and its best cold-water wild coast.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas8 min read
The Channel Islands: California's Kelp Forest Crown Jewels
Where cold northern and warm southern currents collide, the Channel Islands grow California's grandest kelp forests — protected by national park and marine reserves.
Sofia Andersson ·
Atlas8 min read
Foveaux Strait: Oyster Dredges and Kelp at the Bottom of New Zealand
Foveaux Strait runs shallow and fast between the South Island and Rakiura — a coastal atlas guide to its bull kelp reefs, Bluff oysters, great whites and shipwreck coast.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
Kelp Forests of Otago: New Zealand's Southern Swell Forests
Dunedin's doorstep grows forests of giant kelp and southern bull kelp, patrolled by sea lions and hoiho penguins. A guide to Otago's cold southern reefs.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas11 min read
Kelp Forests of Bass Strait: The Rough Water Between Two Seas
Between Tasmania and mainland Australia, Bass Strait mixes two seas into some of the roughest, richest kelp country on Earth. An island-by-island guide.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas8 min read
Kelp Forests of Catalina Island: A Coastal Atlas Guide
Catalina Island is southern California's kelp capital — Casino Point, Farnsworth Bank, warm-water giants and a century of marine science under the canopy.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas11 min read
Kelp Forests of Vancouver Island: Sea Otters, Bull Kelp and First Nations Stewardship
An island-wide guide to Vancouver Island's kelp forests: bull kelp surf coasts, sea otter recovery, and the First Nations stewardship shaping their future.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas9 min read
The Great Southern Reef: Australia's Forgotten Kelp Continent
Australia has a second great reef — 8,000 km of temperate kelp forest across five states, more endemic than the Great Barrier Reef, and in serious trouble.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Prince Edward Islands: South Africa's Subantarctic Kelp Outpost
Marion and Prince Edward Islands hold giant kelp and bull kelp in the Furious Fifties — a coastal atlas guide to South Africa's wild, fiercely protected subantarctic outpost.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas8 min read
Crozet Islands: Subantarctic Kelp Kingdoms of the Indian Ocean
Giant kelp beds ring the Crozet Islands beneath some of the greatest penguin and albatross colonies on Earth — a coastal atlas guide to France's remote subantarctic.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Bornholm and the Baltic Fringe: Where Kelp Meets Brackish Water
Denmark's bedrock island sits where the Baltic thins to half-strength seawater — a coastal atlas guide to brackish kelp beds, bladderwrack reefs and the salt frontier.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·