Title: The Spore Solution: The Complicated California Kelp Conundrum and What is Happening Now

Guest Presenter: Elizabeth Carpenter

Original broadcast:
Saturday, September 30, 2023

Sea Otter Awareness Week is September 24-30. This year's theme, "Restoring Missing Links," recognizes that sea otters remain absent from large portions of their historical range while celebrating the active efforts of conservation groups to restore a continuous population of these charismatic creatures and other missing elements along the Pacific coast. Explore all the activities and events taking place during Sea Otter Awareness Week 2023 HERE.

For our final We Were Here sea otter program event, join the Noyo Center for Marine Science and take a deep dive into the metaphorical golden kelp forest with Elizabeth Carpenter. Elizabeth will describe the variety of mechanisms that led to the demise of the California kelp forest systems and the efforts currently in place to help revive them. She will venture into the nuanced ecology of kelp forest communities, including a short discussion on what role sea otters may play in the recovery efforts if reintroduced. Hear perspectives from the fishers directly affected by the devastating loss of kelp and learn about their contributions to the cause. Nature is never simple, but Elizabeth will break down the science and share a hopeful new restoration approach that may just be the key to assisting the kelp to get back to its former glory.