CoastKeeper cheers kelp comeback

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- The kelp is back, and Wheeler North couldn’t be

happier.

“I wouldn’t have believed it could happen,” said the Caltech emeritus

professor of environmental science.

North was referring to an Orange County CoastKeeper project to replant

the Newport coastline with giant kelp.

It’s something that people, including North, have tried before. But a

combination of water pollution and El Nino storms has, until recently,

conspired to wipe out their efforts.

CoastKeeper’s project, ongoing for about a year, seems to be meeting

with success. Some of the plants the group has raised from spores are now

15 feet tall. And Garry Brown, CoastKeeper’s director, thought it was

time for a little celebration.

Last week, that’s what the group did, holding a luncheon at the Yankee

Tavern restaurant. In recognition of North’s contributions to kelp

research, CoastKeeper announced it had a new name for its aquaculture

test site near Crystal Cove: Wheeler’s Reef.

“Before we came on the scene,” Brown said, “[North] was advising the

Santa Monica BayKeepers on their kelp program. And where they stopped, we

picked it up.”

Also at the lunch were a producer and a cameraman for an upcoming

National Geographic news program. The pair was working on a feature about

kelp restoration.

Ernie Kovacs, the producer, said the program is likely to air in

January or February.

At the head of the table, the 78-year-old North appeared to be pleased

about witnessing the fruits of a long career.

“I just needed a job,” he said, recalling his entry into the research

in 1956. At that time, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla

had just launched a major study of kelp growth.

“I was the only PhD around who could dive, so I was made for it,” he

said.