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 ·
#giant-kelp
41 articles
Science10 min read
Annual or Perennial: How Kelp Life Strategies Shape the Forest
Some kelps live one season, others many years. What annual vs perennial life strategies mean for forest dynamics, storm recovery — and choosing restoration species.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas9 min read
Bahía Magdalena: Lagoon Life and Kelp at the Pacific's Edge
Bahía Magdalena on Baja's Pacific coast shelters gray whales in mangrove lagoons — and hides giant kelp at its southern limit on the ocean shore outside.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas7 min read
Barkley Sound: Kelp, Broken Islands and a Living Laboratory
Barkley Sound on Vancouver Island's west coast holds giant and bull kelp forests, the Broken Group islands and one of Canada's great marine research stations.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas8 min read
The Beagle Channel: Kelp Where Darwin First Saw the Forest
At the foot of South America, one glaciated channel carries giant kelp, sea lions and two centuries of history between two oceans. A Coastal Atlas guide.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Carmel Bay: Stillwaters, Giant Kelp and Four Decades of Protection
Carmel Bay pairs giant kelp with some of California's oldest marine protection. Explore its reefs, Stillwater Cove and what decades of sanctuary bought.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
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 ·
Atlas6 min read
Dive Guide: Point Lobos — The Slot in the Reserve That Fits You
Point Lobos limits divers to a handful of reserved buddy teams a day. How to get a slot, dive Whalers Cove's kelp, and respect California's oldest rules.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas7 min read
Ensenada and Bahía de Todos Santos: Kelp at the Southern Edge
Where giant kelp fades toward its southern limit, Ensenada's upwelled bay hosts Mexico's only commercial kelp harvest and a coast of science, surf and urchins.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas7 min read
Guadalupe Island: Kelp Edges of Mexico's Far-Offshore Rock
A volcanic island 250 km off Baja with great white sharks above, recovering fur seals on the rocks, and a giant kelp forest that ride out the great heatwaves.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas8 min read
Gulf of San Matías: Patagonia's Kelp-Fringed Sea Within a Sea
Argentina's Gulf of San Matías is a warmer, tidal sea within the Argentine Sea: giant kelp on volcanic ledges, scallop grounds, octopus divers and sea lion rookeries.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas9 min read
Heard & McDonald Islands: Kelp Beneath an Active Volcano
Glaciers, an active volcano and some of Earth's loneliest kelp — a guide to Heard and McDonald Islands, Australia's subantarctic World Heritage group.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Science8 min read
Why Kelp Has Balloons: The Physics and Biology of Pneumatocysts
Those bulbs along a kelp frond are gas bladders called pneumatocysts. Here's what's inside them, how kelp inflates them, and why a forest floats.
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
Macquarie Island: Giant Kelp on the World's Most Remote Threatened Listing
Macquarie Island's giant kelp forests became the first marine ecosystem listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List — a subantarctic warning in full view.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
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
Marion Island: Kelp, Mice and Albatross in the Roaring Forties
A volcanic subantarctic outpost ringed by giant kelp, albatross skies and elephant-seal beaches — and the mice that threatened it all. An atlas guide.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
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
Point Loma: San Diego's Giant Kelp Forest at the City's Edge
The Point Loma kelp forest off San Diego is one of the largest and most-studied giant kelp beds on Earth — a story of pollution, recovery and scientific devotion.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
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 ·
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
Baja California: The Southern Frontier of Giant Kelp
Baja California's Pacific kelp beds mark giant kelp's warm-water frontier — a coast of El Niño crashes, fast recovery, red urchin fisheries and hard-won lessons.
Dr. Elias Brandt ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes, Tasmania: First Light on the Holdfast Lines
A Tidewright field note from Maria Island, Tasmania: deploying Holdfast seed lines onto heat-struck reef at dawn, and what we found three months on.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: First Canopy at Stumpy's Bay
Seven months after seeding, the first kelp canopy breaks the surface at Stumpy's Bay. Tidewright's crew logs the milestone — and what it actually means.
Jack Callum ·
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 ·
Atlas7 min read
Tasmania's East Coast: The Front Line of Kelp Loss — and Recovery
Tasmania's east coast has lost the vast majority of its giant kelp forests to warming seas and urchins. Explore what happened here, and what's coming back.
Dr. Lena Fischer ·
Atlas11 min read
Tasmania's Vanishing Giant Kelp: What Happened and What's Being Done
Tasmania lost around 95 percent of its giant kelp forests in decades. Here's the science of the collapse, the urchin invasion — and the restoration race to bring it back.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: Week One Seeding the Tinderbox Reefs
Tidewright's field crew logs their first week seeding Holdfast lines at Tinderbox, Tasmania — survey dives, southerly swells, and 40,000 metres of seeded line.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes9 min read
Spore Season: Collecting Two Weeks of a Forest's Future
A field note from our Tasmanian nursery: two autumn weeks diving for fertile giant kelp blades, racing spores to tanks, and banking a forest's next generation.
Jack Callum ·
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 ·
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 ·
Atlas10 min read
Península Valdés: Kelp, Whales and the Argentine Sea
Península Valdés pairs Patagonia's most famous whale nursery with giant kelp beds at the edge of the steppe — plus one of the kelp world's sharpest invasion stories.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera): Species Profile
Giant kelp is the fastest-growing organism on Earth and the architect of undersea forests. Learn its biology, life cycle, range and why it matters.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Atlas9 min read
The Derwent Estuary: Kelp Restoration in a City's Front Yard
A guide to Hobart's Derwent Estuary — its kelp and seaweed habitats, a century of industry, urban restoration at Tinderbox, and where to see it yourself.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: What Drifter 12 Found Off St Helens
A routine survey sweep off Tasmania's northeast turned into the discovery of the season: wild giant kelp recruiting on a reef the charts had written off.
Jack Callum ·
Atlas8 min read
Point Lobos: The Crown Jewel of California's Marine Reserves
A field guide to Point Lobos State Natural Reserve — its kelp canopy, whaling past, cypress groves, dive rules and the trails that read like a textbook.
Tom Okafor ·
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
La Jolla Cove and the San Diego Kelp Beds: Canopy Beside the Canyons
A guide to La Jolla's kelp forest, the underwater park that protects it, the leopard sharks of La Jolla Shores, and how to see it all from shore.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Atlas8 min read
Malibu's Kelp Coast: Giant Kelp Beside the City
A guide to the giant kelp beds of Malibu and Santa Monica Bay — their history, decline, restoration wins and the best ways to see them today.
Tom Okafor ·
Atlas9 min read
Kelp Forests of Big Sur: California's Vertical Coastline
A coastal atlas guide to Big Sur's kelp: cliff geology, upwelling and otters, where the canopy grows, and realistic access on California's wildest coast.
Tom Okafor ·