All About The Puget Sound's Kelp Forests

Forests can be found all over the world. We're familiar with the ones around Seattle, of course, which are mostly evergreen forests, and the famous rainforests on the Olympic Peninsula.

Whatever the kind of forest you’re in, nearly all of them share common characteristics. First, that they are a complex biome with a wide variety of growth; second, that they play a large role in providing habitats for wildlife and plant life without which local ecosystems could not survive; and, third, that they are a vital piece in the planet’s carbon dioxide cycle that allows us humans and animals to survive!

If we look at forests in this light, then we can see that there are plenty of places all over the world that do the very same thing — but in places where we least expect them. 

Coral reefs are forests of a kind, because they provide protection to nearly 25% of all marine life on Earth, even though they make up only 0.1% of the area in the ocean! These rainforests of the sea also help prevent erosion and protect their coastal shorelines — another common characteristic with land forests. 

Kelp forests are another type of forest that we don’t see, yet it's just as active and biodiverse as the forests we love to hike, camp and recreate in. In fact, the Puget Sound is home to plenty of underwater forests that offer shelter and resources to a wide variety of local creatures, including us!

What is a kelp forest?

A kelp forest is an underwater ecosystem that is dominated by kelp, a type of large brown seaweed that’s found in cold waters all over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The tall kelp algae grow in dense clusters that offer both sustenance and protection for the fish, invertebrates, mammals, amphibians and birds around them. 

Where do kelp forests grow?

Kelp grows in cold, shallow waters around nearly all the continents where the water temperature hovers between 42 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Much of the West Coast of North and South America fits this profile, as does much of southwest Australia, Southern Africa, Europe and Northeastern Asia. 

Water current plays a large role in the distribution of kelp forests. Kelp needs sunlight to grow — it is an algae, after all — so it needs clear waters where upwelling currents bring cold water to the surface from the ocean floor. They also need nutrient-rich water to grow properly and to attract the many animals that utilize the forests, so those upwelling zones bring those carbon-rich nutrients from the floor up to the kelp, too. 

Other factors that create ideal kelp-growing environments include shallow waters — waters less than 100 feet deep are generally right where the magic happens — and places where the waves aren’t too strong to tear the delicate kelp. 

Now, if you’ve ever stepped foot outside our luxury Seattle apartments (or been anywhere along the Washington coast, really) then these conditions will seem pretty familiar. The Puget Sound has the protected cold water, depth and salinity levels that all kelp needs to thrive!

Plants and animals in the Puget Sound Kelp Forests

Kelp forests are complex ecosystems that create intricate food webs which, when in harmony, sustain entire ecosystems and allow living things to thrive!

Here’s a brief (super brief) overview of the plants and animals that rely on the kelp forests in the Puget Sound to live!

Plants in the Puget Sound Kelp Forests

Kelp

Unsurprisingly, sugar kelp and bull kelp are the main plants in the kelp forests, as they create the towering pillars of greenery that not only provides food to the many animals around it, but also stabilizes the ocean floor and dissipates wave energy. 

Seagrasses

Seagrasses and eelgrasses are types of flowering plants that grow in shallow water and provides food and shelter for a variety of marine animals. It also dissipates sediments in the water and keeps shallow areas clear and clean.

Seaweeds

Though kelp is technically a seaweed, too, there are many other kinds of seaweed in kelp forests that provide food and shelter to smaller creatures and invertebrates.

Animals in the Puget Sound Kelp Forests

Invertebrates and shellfish

There are many different types of invertebrates and shellfish that live in kelp forests, including Dungeness crabs, shrimp, snails, mussels, scallops, starfish, oysters and sea urchins — all of which use the seagrasses and seaweeds as homes and as protection from larger predators. 

Fish

Fish of all sizes, shapes and stages of life come to kelp forests for food and shelter. Young fish can hide from predators among the leafy fronds of seagrasses and kelp, larger fish use the forests to hunt for smaller fish and, of course, the abundance of algae and seaweed are great food sources for everything from salmon to halibut, rockfish, lingcod and more. 

Birds

Seabirds like seagulls, terns and albatrosses are often found near kelp forests, as they not only hunt the fish and invertebrates but they also collect pieces of washed-up seaweed to line their nests. 

Even land-birds like bald eagles, crows, starlings and warblers benefit from kelp forests, since they eat the bugs, maggots, fish and invertebrates that hover around the algae.

Sea otters

Northern sea otters are a keystone species in kelp forests as they love to hunt and eat sea urchins, which are a major predator of kelp. Without sea otters, kelp forests would be destroyed!

Seals

Harbor seals, elephant seals, California sea lions and steller sea lions are often found hunting and swimming through kelp forests. Though the seals don’t eat kelp, they do eat the fish, birds and sea otters that hang around the green, slimy plants!

Whales

We’re moving up the food chain now, and we can see now that the kelp forests has created such a rich and diverse ecosystem that even marine mammals as large as whales are benefiting from the seaweed!

Gray whales, humpback whales and orcas can all be seen hunting for fish and smaller marine mammals in the Puget Sound.

Why the PSKF is important

As we can see from this very simple food web, a huge variety of animals rely on the kelp forests for food, shelter and their continued existence. In turn, the animals keep the forest healthy by eating the sea urchins and other animals that eat the kelp, so the whole cycle is, in a perfect world, self-sustaining. 

It’s not a perfect world, though. In the 1970s, kelp forests in the Puget Sound covered an estimated total of 500 square miles — today, there’s less than a hundred. 

The loss of kelp is attributed to rising water temperatures, ocean acidification and overfishing, all of which prevents the kelp from growing fast enough or healthily enough to replace its losses. 

Luckily, though, there are plenty of efforts underway to understand the state of kelp today and to prevent further destruction. In fact, you can get an incredibly in-depth look at nearly everything you’d want to know about the PSKF and its restoration right here!

All in all

In the end, kelp forests here in the Puget Sound — and all over the world — are part of the environment here on land, too, and they’re the reason we get to enjoy fresh fish, shellfish and recreation here in Washington. 

So, next time you’re out in and around the waters of Puget Sound, keep an eye out for those patches of green floating just below the surface, or for the washed-up kelp fronds being nibbled at by a bird. It’s all part of a vital ecosystem that sustains life all over the region, and it’s the reason we get to enjoy the things we do!

Let’s keep it that way!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/TheOtherBen