The Web Of Life

Kelp Forest

Fish Grow on Forests and Forests Grow on Fish

Species: Giant / Bull Kelp

• Kelp forests can grow up to 30 metres in height and shelter a wide range of species within different layers of the forest. The "canopy" of the kelp forest is visible from the sea surface and is made up of the bulbs and fronds of bull kelp and giant kelp.

• Amongst the stipes - or "trunks" - of the kelp forest, juvenile herring and salmon can hide from predators and feed peacefully during winter storms. The holdfasts provide shelter for nearly 200 marine species including sea worms and sea stars.

• Predators, such as harbour seals, sea lions, orcas, marbled murrelets and other seabirds, hunt around kelp forests.

• Winter storms break the holdfasts and rafts of kelp drift around providing food offshore and onshore. The tangle of kelp end up on the high tide line where it produces a rich breeding ground for amphipods (sea fleas) which feeds shorebirds.

• Rotting kelp tossed up on the beach builds soil that establishes the shoreline Sitka spruce forests.