Kelp forests shelter hundreds of marine species and rival rainforests in ecological importance, yet they can collapse within a single year. The creature responsible for their survival is smaller than ...

Adorably fuzzy sea otters aren’t just cute. The marine mammals serve a crucial role, helping to restore the giant kelp forests they rely on by removing their top predators, the sea urchins. When ...

A school-led restoration project in Orange County, California, has helped bring back kelp forests while turning thousands of ...

It’s not hard to find a long-spined sea urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) on rocky walls and in underwater forests comprised ...

Saccharina latissima, or sugar kelp, is one of the dominant species in Maine's kelp forests, providing food, habitat and ...

When sea otters were reintroduced along the coastlines of islands in Southern California and British Columbia, researchers saw kelp forests return to areas that were destroyed by sea urchins. But how ...

Sea otters aren't just cute, they're guardians of an entire underwater forest. In this episode of the Wild Critters USA series on the family podcast ...

The sweltering seas expected this winter could threaten California’s kelp forests. UC Santa Cruz researchers are mobilizing ...

In the coastal waters off British Columbia, tribal volunteers from the Haida Nation dive for purple sea urchins amid a dense forest of rippling golden-brown kelp fronds. Sunlight filters through the ...

While kelp forests persist along northern Maine’s rocky coast, kelp abundance has declined by as much as 80% on the southern coast in recent decades. In its stead, carpet-like turf algae have moved in ...

In ideal conditions, kelp can grow up to 18 inches per day, and in stark contrast to the colorful and slow-growing corals, the giant kelp canopies tower above the ocean floor. Like trees in a forest, ...