A bed of life restored

Giant kelp is coming back to local waters, and Crystal Cove State Park visitors can see it for themselves.

Kelp is the subject of the park’s first exhibit in the newly renovated Rotating Exhibit Facility, located in the Historic District of restored 1930s-era cottages.

Giant Kelp and the Coastal Ecosystem, sponsored by the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, opened to the public in June and will run through the end of September.

Marine biologist and exhibit creator Nancy Caruso said the purpose of the exhibit is to educate the community about the diminishing kelp forests and its importance in daily life.

“It’s important for the public to be aware of their impact on the environment and to know what they can do to help,” she said.

Six years ago, she initiated the Giant Kelp Restoration project, which recruits volunteers to help replenish kelp beds that have disappeared from the reefs in Orange County for various reasons.

Through a federal grant and the help of 450 volunteers, Caruso was able to replant five acres of kelp in Crystal Cove.

She is now focusing her efforts in Heisler Park.

“It’s been a successful restoration,” she said. “But if no one knows about [the issue], it’s a complete failure.”

About 90% of the kelp in Orange County disappeared in the 1983 El Niño storms, which ripped them from the reefs and left them covered in sand and unfavorable warm water, lacking in nutrients, she said.

Coastal development and unsustainable fishing conditions are also to blame.

Kelp serves as shelter and food to more than 800 species of marine animals in Southern California.

“It is the basis to our ecosystem,” Caruso said.

It is also commercially important; algin from kelp is used in food products like dressings, waffles, and macaroni and cheese.

It is also an ingredient in many beauty products and iodine-rich supplements.

Kelp can grow up to 110 feet in length at a rate of three feet per day, depending on water levels, and thrives in clear, shallow oceans.

If water is murky and sunlight cannot reach the algae, growth is stunted.

In efforts to restore the kelp’s natural process in Orange County, Caruso and her team of volunteers have been relocating sea urchins which prey on the existing kelp a mile and a half deeper into the ocean.

Students from Pacifica High School in Garden Grove and Warner Middle School in Westminster have harvested kelp spores and grown them on ceramic tiles, which volunteer divers then plant on the ocean reefs.

Caruso’s group is the only one that conducts underwater monitoring, so they can determine changes from the onset of the project through completion.

Volunteers also help to educate the community, hold fundraising events to keep the project running, and have contributed time and money to the exhibit at the cove.

Caruso speaks to students at schools to spread knowledge.

She also assists with after-school programs, like the Kelp-Keep Club at Warner, that have donated their time to helping her cause.

“There has been great energy behind this project,” Caruso said. “Everybody just rallies.”

The public can help by using natural pesticides and herbicides, conserving water and decreasing run-off, not littering and by becoming knowledgeable about Marine Protected Areas.

Crystal Cove State Park Supervisor Ken Kramer said the facility is meant to give the park an opportunity to get the community involved in important environmental issues.

“We want visitors to walk away more educated, enriched and entertained,” he said. “This exhibit has been a resounding success.”

Caruso hopes to finish Heisler before moving on to Crescent Bay, but is not confident she will have the funding to complete it.

“It’s really bad — just a blanket of purple and red [sea creatures],” she said.

For more information about how you can help, or to make a donation, call Caruso at (714) 206-5147 or e-mail ncaruso@lbaop.org.

The Rotating Exhibit Facility will host different exhibits for one to three months at a time, which provide educational information about the environment or park.

To submit a proposal, contact the special events coordinator at (949) 494- 3534.