After 90% of California’s Kelp Forests Were Destroyed, SeaTrees Is Restoring Them - The Inertia

over the last 10 years california has lost 90 percent of its kelp cover through a combination of climate change and human impacts and it's actually a dramatic loss could you imagine if 90 of the trees on land disappeared in 10 years like people would know about it and be quite upset the oceans actually have absorbed over 90 of the global warming heat so far that we've actually produced much like the marine heat waves that have actually knocked out 50 percent of the great barrier reef over in australia on the west coast here in california we have the same thing happening but to our kelp forest kelp forests are basically like the redwoods of the sea they're an extraordinary forest with an amazing amount of biodiversity and productivity both in terms of things that live in the forest fish and sea lions and whales as well as the benefits to the ocean itself it reduces ocean acidity as the kelp grows improves water quality and it also sequesters vast amounts of carbon dioxide in the deep ocean so kelp actually fights climate change in a way few forests can do [Music] giant kelp is one of the fastest growing organisms on the planet in normal conditions it can grow 12 to 14 inches a day under ideal conditions it can grow up to two feet per day which means that you can actually go from a urchin barren like bare rock no kelp no life back to a healthy thriving kelp forest that's 30 or 40 feet tall it's extraordinary there's no other you know regeneration or conservation work that we can do that's faster than that [Music] the goal of sea trees is to help restore what we call blue carbon ecosystems around the world blue carbon is mangrove forest kelp forests seagrass meadows coral reefs and coastal watersheds this is the palace verdes kelp restoration project being operated by the sea tree's partner the bay foundation they're marine biologists based in los angeles who have pioneered the techniques to restore kelp forests in california and the way they do it is they basically map out the urchin barrens where there should be kelp and then go in with a urchin divers it's essentially called calling the urchins and what they do is they take a rock hammer and they smash the urchins under water you can see the kelp forest ends right there and where it ends is where the urchin barrens begin and so this is the whole section where the urchin fishermen are going down with the hammers restoring the kelp forest is a way for california to hit its target goals on climate change it's one of the most important systems in the state to sequester carbon so if we're concerned about all the wildfires and the drought and all the other impacts that climate change is causing on our state this is one of the best ways for california to address that problem cb's approached us in 2019 at the beginning of the launch of c trees all the brands and people that are coming together like cvs that's actually enabling the environmental benefit to happen so when someone goes and buys a pair of cv shoes in the sea chains collection that actually restores one square foot of california kelp forest the sole was actually made from recycled plastic every single one is actually a little bit different you got organic cotton uppers they actually have a recycled bottle interior there's nothing metal on the laces it's all sewn this is all from upcycled plastic water bottles it's easy to get on board get a pair of cvs go to our website you can donate to restore kelp on your own right there as an individual and collectively get involved get engaged [Music] you

Channel: The Inertia

Views: 7,832

Keywords: the inertia, surfing, surf, outdoors, kelp, kelp restoration, palos verdes, san pedro, seavees, seatrees, sustainable surf, kevin whilden, seachange collection

Id: z1L0i0QcQZk

Length: 4min 9sec (249 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021