Environmental group gets grant renewal

Alicia Robinson

Kelp lovers, rejoice. Orange County CoastKeeper will continue its

highly successful kelp reforestation program with the renewal of a

federal grant that has boosted the effort since 2002.

The group also has ambitious plans to build a kelp lab and

“mariculture learning center” devoted to marine life in Orange County

by summer.

CoastKeeper started kelp reforestation in June 2001 to combat the

loss of kelp to natural predators and man-made hazards, said Garry

Brown, CoastKeeper’s executive director. In 2002, the group received

a three-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration that has provided about $50,000 annually for kelp

reforestation and associated educational programs.

The program has been highly successful, fostering kelp canopies on

seven reefs in Crystal Cove and involving hundreds of students in

growing kelp to be planted. Because of ideal growing conditions in

the last few years, some kelp planted far underwater has reached 35

feet to the surface, said Nancy Caruso, a marine biologist with

CoastKeeper who heads the kelp project.

Before the kelp began to thrive, marine animals would stay down

among the rocks because they had nowhere else to hide, Caruso said.

“Now there’s fish and animals all the way from the bottom to the

surface,” she said.

CoastKeeper spends a total of $125,000 a year on the kelp program,

supplementing the federal grant with private donations and other

grants, Brown said. The current grant runs out later this year.

“We just got verbal approval that NOAA has decided to basically

fund our program for another three years because of the success it’s

had,” Brown said.

Because of the kelp’s mortality rate of about 85%, more kelp is

needed than can be provided by participating schools and the

L.A.-area lab where CoastKeeper now grows kelp, Brown said. To that

end, the organization wants to build its own lab.

CoastKeeper officials hope to raise $150,000 to $200,000 to build

a facility where they can grow kelp, show students a marine lab in

action and launch other marine restoration programs, Caruso said.

“It will definitely help us be able to reach a lot more students,

and it’ll help us get our kelp back faster,” she said.

CoastKeeper has not decided on a site for the lab but plans to

open the lab in August, Brown said.