CIMI Kelp Restoration
Boosting Kelp Resilience, One Reef at a Time
Catalina Island's kelp forests have faced years of environmental change, including marine heatwaves, powerful storms, and shifts in marine communities. After approximately nine years without kelp recruitment at our study sites, giant kelp began returning naturally in 2023, creating an opportunity to understand what drives recovery and what allows kelp forests to persist, decline, or disappear.
The CIMI Kelp Project combines detailed seafloor mapping, drone imagery, kelp census, underwater surveys, and wave and temperature monitoring to investigate how habitat, ocean conditions, and biological interactions shape kelp recovery at Toyon Bay and Fox Landing. By learning from nature, we aim to inform effective, cost-efficient conservation and restoration while engaging students in real-world marine science.
Explore our research, discover our study sites, follow our latest findings, and learn how we are working to understand kelp recovery and support the future of Catalina Island's kelp forests.
The video below was filmed at the beginning of our project, when our focus was primarily on kelp restoration. Since then, the natural return of kelp at our study sites has expanded our project scope and has created an exciting opportunity to learn from nature.