Kelp Lines is a seasonal collaboration between Ocean Strategies, Washington Sea Grant and the Washington Seaweed Collaborative that serves up the latest on seaweed farming and restoration in Washington State.
Our curated content is categorized to help you zero in on the items most relevant to YOUR interests: Washington, Regional, National, Events, Resources, and Research. A few topics we delivered late last month:
- Governor signs marine forest bill and proclaims April 16 “Bull Kelp Day” – It’s official! HB1631, designating bull kelp as Washington’s state marine forest, was signed into law last week. Puget Sound Restoration Fund and Seattle Aquarium Youth Ocean Advocates joined Representative Greg Nance in Olympia to celebrate this momentous occasion.
- World War I-era maps help track history of kelp forests in Pacific Northwest – In 1915, the U.S. commissioned a UW ecologist to survey west coast kelp beds as an alternative source of potash for wartime munitions. What became of these maps, and what they revealed about current populations, is a surprisingly positive story (brought to light by local kelp luminaries Tom Mumford, Helen Berry and Cathy Pfister).
- Mapping Seattle’s Historical Kelp Forests – Not to be outdone, DNR painstakingly stitched together dozens of mid-80’s aerial images to document Seattle’s historic floating kelp beds, then brought them to life in this captivating storymap.
