Sea Kelp And Toothpaste

Get out and go wild

I have wonderful memories of the coast as a child, of rock pooling where I found hermit crabs and bashful goby amongst the many and varied types of seaweed, from sea lettuce to bladderwrack. Nowadays, I dive the beautiful waters around the British coast, through forests of kelp, and alongside elegant spider crabs. Each dive introduces exciting discoveries that draw me back for more.

To mark National Marine Week across the length and breadth of Britain, the Wildlife Trusts are celebrating the diversity of wildlife beneath the waves and along our shores. Our seas are home to an incredible variety of weird and wonderful wildlife, from comb jellies and Bloody Henry starfish, to the grey seal and Goliath basking shark. Did you know that a staggering 50 per cent of the UK’s plants and animals live in our seas? However, the wildlife that can be found today is just a tiny drop of what we once had. From the ocean depths to the coastal shallows, our native marine wildlife is in drastic decline. During National Marine Week we also want to help people to understand more about the threats that wildlife faces and how they can get involved in protecting it. Overfishing, climate change and pollution are having devastating effects on the marine environment. Just two per cent of the UK’s sea area is designated with a level of protection for wildlife, with less than 0.001 per cent thought of as fully-protected from all damaging activities.

As part of a national Living Seas campaign, the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust is championing ‘Petition Fish’ — calling for as many people as possible to encourage the Government to make a network of Marine Protected Areas around the UK coast.

Experience from around the world shows that these protected areas, where damaging activities are restricted, can help fragile marine ecosystems and wildlife to recover — and with this the fish stocks. At College Lake Nature Reserve, near Tring, which millions of years ago was at the bottom of a tropical sea, (sharks’ teeth and ammonites were found in the chalk), on August 10-11 we are running activities to celebrate marine wildlife and raise awareness of its plight.

san diego criminal defense attorneys: Forests in the Sea - Kelp ...

Diego are some of the richest and most developed beds on earth.  Kelp is ordinarily found in areas where nutrient levels are high.  This often occurs where there is an upwelling of nutrients from deep waters or where nutrients are in case,granted locally but other mean such as seal wastes.  The size of the kelp beds vary from year to year, determined by water temperature and storm actions as well as various pollution and harvesting issues. 

Kelp creates flat patches on the water, as the vegetative growth mutes the wave and wind performance on the ocean's surface.  Close up, it looks like you are thoughprovoking through the leaves at the very top of the forest canopy.  Under water, it looks like a dimly lit forest with the sun's rays piercing through a submerged forest.

The Kelp Plant

The kelp plant is one of the fastest growing plants on earth and under ideal conditions may grow a concentrate feet per day.  It prefers water temperatures in the 50 - 65 degree F range and may reach upwards of 120 feet in height. Kelp anchors itself of the ocean floor by mean of a "hold fast" - a bunching together of the roots on rocky reefs or onto anything it can find to hold on to.  As the leaves reach the surface of the water they spread out to form a canopy much the way trees in a forest do.  Often the kelp branches will appear like deer antlers sticking out of the water - maybe the analogy is a consequent of the author's rural upbringing in Canada.

The kelp bed provides a habitat for a host of creatures, both herbivores and carnivores.  It is a rich ecosystem with some eating the plant itself; some eating the plants springing up in the environment created by the kelp bed; and some eating the other animals that come to the kelp bed for food and shelter.

Uses for Kelp

The kelp plant has been used for thousands of years and has many uses.

Atlantic, Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories

Crime and punishment

In the heart of the sea, the tragedy of the whaleship Essex

War and peace

Romeo and Juliet