Kelp Forests―an Underwater Garden in Jeopardy

McNeill’s dives were part of the “Chiix̱uu Tll iinasdll: Nurturing Seafood to Grow” project, an initiative aimed at restoring an area of kelp forest in Gwaii Haanas between 2017 and 2021.

The objective of collecting urchins was to help rectify the area’s unbalanced food chain. Sea otters were important consumers of urchins before their local extinction during the maritime fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Without predation, urchins have become hyperabundant, leading to the overgrazing of kelp, an important cultural resource to the Haida Nation, as well as an integral component of the world’s biodiversity and environment.

Kelp lives near shorelines around the world and helps to nourish and house important underwater life. Much like forests on land, kelp’s photosynthesis process absorbs carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and phosphorous and releases oxygen—an important system in slowing the rate of climate change. Its role in fisheries production and nitrogen removal annually generates more than $500 billion globally.

But the Haida Nation isn’t the only area grappling with kelp loss. More than half of kelp forests worldwide have declined in the past 50 years, jeopardizing coastal biodiversity, water quality, and atmospheric carbon levels.

An overlooked issue

Underwater gardens are disappearing at alarming rates due to factors like habitat destruction, overharvesting and overgrazing, and pollution. Other challenges include climate change and sedimentation caused by runoff from deforestation, dredging, or storms. And, while ocean conservation has been around for decades, kelp preservation and restoration are relatively new.

“The ocean is often neglected, compared to the land, and then within the ocean, there’s a very strong focus on coral,” explains Aaron Eger, founder and program director of the Kelp Forest Alliance, an environmental organization working to protect the world’s kelp. “There are layers of bias that influence where our conservation dollars and energy are directed.”

This underrepresentation was quantified in a 2021 paper published in the Frontiers in Marine Science journal that measured the invisibility of kelp forests in international environmental governance. Researchers found that for every mention of kelp forests, seagrass meadows were mentioned seven times, salt marshes 20 times, coral reefs 38 times, and mangroves 43 times.

A global call to action

In 2023, Eger’s organization launched the Kelp Forest Challenge, a global movement calling on everyone—from individuals to corporations and governments—to join the challenge of restoring 1 million hectares and protecting 3 million hectares of kelp forest habitat by 2040.

Measures to restore and preserve kelp forests begin with the identification of their causes for decline. Controlling urchin populations or cleaning polluted water and sedimentation can help conserve threatened kelp, while seeding or transplanting baby kelp can aid in the growth of new forests.

“It’s still very early, but I think we’re on pace,” says Eger of the pledges, which are tracked on a dashboard the organization created to help the public follow the project’s progress. “I think it’s going to require more international commitment, however, and a larger kind of consolidated restoration program.”

While countries like Japan and Korea have a long history of restoration efforts, and regions like California and Washington state are building conservation and restoration frameworks, to date, the Kelp Forest Challenge is the only conservation initiative that exists at an international level.

An interconnected system

In Haida Gwaii, the Haida Nation’s ethics and values serve as their guiding principles. Gina ‘waadluxan gud ad kwaagid, which means interconnectedness—an understanding that everything depends on everything else—serves as an important reminder about the biosphere’s fragility and vulnerability. And it’s this principle that McNeill points to when speaking about the area’s kelp loss.

“The sea otter played such a role in regulating urchins, and when you remove them, the whole system can change,” says McNeill. “It just goes to show how interconnected our system is.”

This article was originally published in the April 2025 issue of alive magazine.