Kelp Rescue Initiative working to restore precious coastal eco-system around Vancouver Island
Restoration of kelp forests lost to ocean heat waves and overgrazing sea urchins is underway off Vancouver Island’s coastlines with guidance from local researchers.
Kelp forests are quickly declining around the world from a combination of sea urchin predation and warming ocean temperatures due to climate change. This was further exacerbated during the ocean warming “blob” event between 2014 to 2016, said Jasmin Schuster, the initiative’s program manager. Researchers believe the marine heat wave likely caused the die-off of the main predators of sea urchins that, in turn, graze on the seaweed — putting “pressure from a lot of angles,” on the kelp, Schuster said.
“So you’ve got this organism that reproduces at roughly the same time every year. But now it’s getting hit with this freshwater lens and really warm water earlier in the season, and that’s another big driver of why we’re starting to lose these kelp populations,” Green said. The Kelp Research Initiative is in the second year of the four-year project. It is led by Julia Baum of UVic and Sean Rogers, director of the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, and supported by a $3.68 million research grant from the DFO under the Aquatic Ecosystems Restoration Fund.
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