Kelp-forest project growing

Alicia Robinson

Donning wetsuits, fins and in one case a bathing cap, a half-dozen

members of Newport Beach’s Coastal/Bay Water Quality Advisory

Committee plunged into the ocean off Crystal Cove Thursday. Their

mission was to check out a kelp-reforestation project undertaken by

Orange County CoastKeeper, a Newport Beach water-quality watchdog

group.

The project, started in 2001, was intended to restore

once-abundant kelp forests that have suffered from man-made hazards

such as water pollution and also from natural predators. CoastKeeper

grows kelp on tiles, places them underwater, and the plants take

root.

The kelp reforestation has been a success, said Diane Witmer, a

volunteer with Orange County CoastKeeper. The group has established

five kelp sites in Crystal Cove and, more recently, two in Laguna

Beach. Fish counts at the older kelp sites show the diversity of

aquatic life there has increased, Witmer said. The kelp is important

because it help provides natural habitat.

“That’s pretty exciting for us to know that it’s not only

successful in growing the kelp, but it’s helping the marine life,”

Witmer said.

Giant kelp, a brownish-green plant with crinkly leaves, can grow

as much as two feet a day in ideal conditions. Thursday’s jaunt

aboard Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway’s boat allowed water-quality

committee members to see how the kelp is thriving, thanks to an

underwater video camera connected to a monitor on the boat.

Environmental activist Jack Skinner, a member of the water-quality

committee, got into the water to see the kelp for himself. He

remembers how abundant the kelp used to be about 50 years ago, and

he’s glad to see it growing well again, he said.

“Maybe this is a significant beginning of the comeback of the

former kelp beds that used to cover the area,” he said.

The committee also has thrived since it was formed in the late

1980s to combat water-quality problems in Newport Bay, Skinner said.

Many members belong to environmental groups and are stressing

education as a way to prevent water pollution, he said.

For the kelp project, CoastKeeper is planning to develop new

planting sites, possibly in Laguna Beach or on reefs west of the

Newport Pier, Orange County CoastKeeper Program Director Randy Seton

said.