The underwater landscape here was once dominated by towering kelp forests. Often described as the redwoods of the sea, kelp can grow taller than a 10-story building at rates of up to 2ft per day. These dense aquatic canopies form a critical habitat for thousands of marine species and contribute to the ocean’s ecological engine that produces roughly half of the oxygen on Earth.
They are also a crucial defense against global heating. Worldwide, kelp forests sequester approximately 200m tons of carbon dioxide every year by pulling large amounts of planet-warming emissions out of the atmosphere, which they use to grow.