Help The Kelp Profiled in the Nanaimo News Bulletin

Tamara Cunningham wrote:

Citizen scientists were all smiles as they caught their first glimpse of young kelp bobbing beneath Gabriola Island’s Clark Bay.

“I had snorkeled down before we planted the spores ... and observed very little life and no kelp whatsoever,” said Nancy Laird, a Help the Kelp volunteer working to reforest kelp beds off Gabriola Island. “Six months later, there were actually small kelp plants.

“When you are 20 feet under the water you can’t go whoopee, but I guess I let out a few more bubbles from my regulator.”

Help the Kelp, a group of citizen scientists, tested a new technique last summer to replant kelp with hopes of helping to fight the loss of the underwater beds.

To read the whole story click here.

Awesome Ocean's Day 2014

If you missed us .......
Here are some pics of our booth today 

Our zodiac 'Kelpie' doing its part

Play 'Identify the kelp'

 Mapping is fun, come and experience it this year

Our last year in photos

Two of our fabulous volunteers

Oceans Day 2014

Come and join Help the Kelp this year at Oceans Day. We'll have some great displays and lots of information about kelp and its importance to the planet.

Survey Dive Today On Planted Area

Today was an exciting day for kelpers Nancy Laird and Michael Mehta. We did a survey dive on the transplanted area around Clark Bay to see if any Bull Kelp sprouted from the experimental carboy approach used last Summer.

Here's what we found.

Although much of the area is sandy and excellent eel grass habitat (see below), there were many rocky areas filled with a wide variety of kelp - including Bull Kelp!

During our mapping in the Summer of 2013 there were only a handful of Bull Kelp plants in the area, and right now there are many times more of them growing and some of them in dense groupings. A remapping over the Summer of this year will give us more precise data on this and we remain cautiously optimistic about the carboy protocol.

Volunteers for 2014

Volunteers welcome:

Help The Kelp has another exciting season of work coming up with reviews of last year’s planting outcomes, more mapping, and hopefully more replanting. Please send an email to Michael at michaeldmehta@hotmail.com if you wish to play an active role in these activities for 2014.

Help The Kelp in the news: Harbour Spiel

The following article about Help The Kelp's work by Michael Mehta highlights the efforts of our group. It can be found in the December 2013 edition of the Harbour Spiel.

Help The Kelp featured in Nanaimo News Bulletin for replanting

An article by Tamara Cunningham from the Nanaimo News Bulletin features our replanting work.

Paul O'Sullivan (left) and Michael Mehta. Photo by T. Cunningham

To read the article click here. 

60 pound concrete blocks holding in rough water

When we first decided to use concrete blocks to weigh down the carboy spore-dispersal systems, we were not sure if 60 pound blocks would work in rough weather. I am delighted to report that it does indeed work, and the past day of rough seas has not moved anything.

Second round of "planting" done

This morning members of Help of Kelp took advantage of surprisingly good weather and calm seas to do a second round of bull kelp "planting" using our new "carboy protocol" to disperse thousands of spores in the waters in front of the Surf Lodge.

On Saturday, team members Michele and Michael harvested several ripe sori from bull kelp on the south end of the island. They were dried for 36 hours so that when re-introduced to the water, spores would drop almost immediately to the sea floor. Here's what the drying area looked like.

The team was delighted to welcome newest volunteers Bill Beedie (from Gabriola Automotive) and Tony, as well as to have along with us journalist Tamara Cunningham from the Nanaimo News Bulletin. Tamara documented the process, and an article is coming out this Thursday.

The assistance of Bill and Tony is greatly appreciated. We were able to use Bill's boat as a staging area for repacking the carboys with new sori, and of course for pulling the heavy concrete blocks back up. Below are some photos of today's adventure with brief descriptions.

Here's Bill's beautiful wooden boat dating to the 1930s.

Bill's boat worked in tandem with our research boat "Kelpie" to retrieve and re-position the carboys once packed with fresh sori. You'll see on the inflatable boat kelpers Paul O'Sullivan and Michael Mehta.

Here's how the heavy concrete blocks that held the carboys in place were pulled up. The skill and patience of Bill and Tony came in very handy for this task. Once on-board the larger boat, team member Michele carefully stuffed dozens of sori cuttings into each carboy.

The repacked carboys and concrete block systems were then hoisted back onto "Kelpie" for placement in the new area with depths ranging between 15-22'

Short video of planting day

Team member Michele Fire-River Heart produced the following short video of how we're attempting to replant kelp.

Here's a photo of the bouys with carboys below them in Clark Bay near the Surf Lodge.

Planting in Clark Bay: Deploying the carboys

This morning Help the Kelp volunteers loaded the carboys with sori (spore patches) that we harvested on Saturday. By slightly drying them out, the sori are expected to immediately release their spores when put back in the water. Here team members Michele and Victor show how it's done.

Later in the afternoon... Before deploying the carboys in the Clark Bay area near the Surf Lodge, team member Nancy confers with Michael about where to inspect the bottom for suitable substrate. Bull kelp grow in rocky areas best.

We based our deployment on GPS mapping of kelp done earlier in the summer, and you'll see here a hole in the system (right hand side of map) that we'll try filling with new kelp.

Here's a photo of Nancy snorkelling in Clark Bay and a photo of the bottom structure that she took.

Michele and Victor documented the process too and we'll have some video to share at some point. Here's Michele ready to capture more action.

After ascertaining that Clark Bay is a good place to start replanting, the team loaded up our small research vessel "Kelpie" and began the process of dropping the weighted carboys in water between 15-22'.

Here's a photo of what they look like once placed, and in a few days we'll need to harvest new sori, pull up the carboy systems, reload, and redeploy somewhere else on the island.

Building the "carboy" delivery systems and harvesting sori

Today was a very busy and rewarding day for volunteers working with Help the Kelp. This morning team members assembled five carboy delivery systems that look like this.

We also managed to harvest more than 200 sori from a wide range of Bull Kelp in the False Narrows area.

And tested one of the carboys - and it worked like a charm!

Here's what the harvest looks like right now. It is being dried out for about 36 hours, and some of the sori were pre-treated with iodine.

On Monday the team will deploy these devices in the Clark Bay area pending a successful survey of the bottom structure. Approximately 40 sori - a mix of treated and untreated - will be stuffed into each carboy. The theory here is that when put back in the water, the sori will release spores and hopefully build a rich canopy next year.

A BIG THANKS TO THE VOLUNTEERS AND TO THOSE WHO DONATED MATERIAL.