Laguna Bluebelt » Kelp

At The Water’s Edge

Charlotte — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 22:19:09 +0000

Observations and thoughts on a flat, calmy day at the water’s edge in August: Sedimentary rock of taffy San Onofre Breccia swirls is a glorious sandstone with a color as vibrant as butter that abuts our beaches. Sea Wrack, the brown seaweed and Giant Kelp that washes ashore in abundance from the storms and natural action of the waves surround us while I enjoy the morning with my sunny friends. Perhaps this is obvious but because the tide rises up and down twice a day things at the top of the shore get much less water than things at the bottom. The ocean is so moist and glistening and heavy and fecund and the California Breccia rock formations barely 20 yards or more away with the Coastal Sage Scrub up above are as crispy and dry and brown as some parts of the desert. I am amazed at this dramatic contrast – it is so distinct – you can close your eyes and be immediately transported into another world… At our point of entry to the beach at Reef Point there is a family of California Gnatcatchers in the dry scrub, chattering away happily. Down on the beach if you are lucky you can see Western Snowy Plovers tucked up in seaweed resting from the winter storms. Both birds are on the Endangered Species List. Both birds live in entirely different habitat but exist and shelter together within 100 yards or less of one another. And then ‘trip-out’ and think of the weather zones beneath the ocean… 20 and more Big Blue Whales seen in a day on our whale watching boats out of Dana Pt recently. (Click on Photo)Remarkable. We saw them blow two miles off shore – they have two blow holes side by side and their blow is huge and quite visible from the beach. Big Blues can grow close to 100 feet, the largest living animal ever known on earth. They follow the Krill and are normally seen more in Central California than this far south. There is a world of weather under the ocean that I know nothing about but them Big Ole Blues, they know.

January 1st is D-day when the Marine Protected Areas of Laguna Beach will be officially implemented – I think of all the ocean’s marine creatures that will benefit from this protection and I am happy as I stroll along the shore with the walking group.

Wrack, Wrack, Glorious Wrack.

Charlotte — Wed, 14 May 2025 22:12:06 +0000

Laguna Beach Walkers Walk the Wrack. Definition: Perhaps from Middle Dutch, wrak,wreckage; the term corresponds to Old English wraec Wrack. Hence the term “Wrack and Ruin” What is Wrack? It’s the common name for several species of seaweed (mega algae) when it washes ashore having broken away from the Kelp Forest under the sea after storms or winter swells in Laguna. The wrack zone is part of the shore just above the mean high tide where kelp is deposited on the sand – this is wrack. Laguna Beach’s Giant Kelp Wrack is called Macrocystis pyrifera – got it?! We love Wrack. So much life goes on in wrack on our beaches that we feel it’s like a treasure trove of washed up seaweed salvage. We walk amongst the Winter and Spring wrack like an obstacle course enjoying the spongy beds as we clamber by, looking for animal life. Thousands of invertebrates live in the holdfast. Do you see the Brittle Sea Star holding on to the holdfast (foot) of the wrack in the photos?

Wrack use: It was dried to be used as fuel during the winter, for human consumption, animal feed, fertilizer, glass production, iodine and now for bio-fuel. The Irish used it as fertilizer to grow their precious potatoes. Amazing stuff! It’s work for the City of Laguna Beach though. Wrack has critters and birds and lots of strong, ocean smells with flies galore in it – bird-yummy. Understandably, Main Beach is bulldozed of most of its latent wrack in the summer because of the tourists. Rather than bulldozing, Crystal Cove lets it lie and the tides eventually take the wrack back out to sea for more food and habitat for our marine birds and critters. Talk about great recycling! Thank you Crystal Cove.

More than 800 species rely on kelp forests, and we are one of them! Homage to the Kelp and Hail to the wrack!

Leopard Sharks, Bat Rays and Me

admin — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re (fool) hardy enough to get in the water to snorkel or scuba in the late fall/early winter, you can be rewarded with amazingly clear water and “Lake Laguna” conditions. Typically the best water visibility of the year occurs at this time. The conditions the last month or so have been phenomenal, with many days having 20-30 ft visibility. If you can handle the 56-59 degree water and have been out there, you know what I mean. If you can’t imagine doing such a crazy thing, I will share my experience from one epic day of snorkeling earlier this month. I swam from Main Beach to Monument Point through the existing Heisler Park State Marine Reserve and the visibility was a phenomenal 30 Feet+. I must have seen ~50 leopard sharks and 100-200 bat rays in the kelp bed. I swear I’m not exaggerating. I still can’t quite believe what I saw. I felt like I was floating over an Underwater Serengeti.

The leopard sharks were everywhere and the bat rays were in the kelp bed off Bird Rock/Rockpile Beach. But the best leopard shark jamboree was just south of Monument Point. I lost track after 12- there were easily 2 dozen, 3-6 footers just doing their shark swimming around thing. It was probably only 15 ft deep there so I had a great view and so clear they were casting shadows on the sandy bottom. Neither leopard sharks or bat rays are dangerous- they usually stay near the bottom where their prey lives. Their diets includes mollusks, crustaceans and fish. I also saw a horn shark resting on the bottom and found a few abalone and the kelp itself was just beautiful.

Check out these short videos of the leopard sharks, a bat ray, and diving down to check out a horn shark and an abalone: Swimming with Sharks in the Laguna Bluebelt Bat Ray gliding through the Kelp Forest Horn Shark resting on the bottom Abalone 25 years of snorkeling here and its one of my most memorable days. To see more photos from that day, visit Laguna Bluebelt’s Facebook page LIKE our page to stay updated on the Laguna Bluebelt and to enjoy more beautiful photos from above and below the water. The existing Heisler Park Marine Reserve is one of my favorite places to snorkel. The difference between the habitat in this no-take reserve versus some of the other nearby coves is dramatic. The rocks are covered with kelp and coralline algae. There are urchins but you have to look for them. The fish are more abundant and larger. I routinely see fish species within the reserve that I rarely see outside the reserve. So even on this minuscule scale, Marine Reserves work- I have seen it with my own eyes right here in Laguna Beach. We know from the science that this very small reserve is far from the size needed to effectively allow fish to reproduce and replenish to the levels needed to allow spillover to surrounding areas for consumptive users. One can only imagine this healthy marine habitat multiplied along the entire Laguna coastline as the expanded Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve takes effect on Jan. 1st, 2012. With the combined effects of stopping extraction, abalone and kelp restoration, urchin mitigation and improved water quality it will be exciting to witness the restoration first hand over the coming years. There are many examples of successful marine reserves: Channel Islands MPAs: Report on the First 5 Years of Monitoring: 2003-2008 and the recently released study from scientists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography on the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park in Baja: New study shows that Cabo Pulmo is the “most robust marine preserve in the world” Scientists will be monitoring the new MPAs and we’ll be looking forward to their findings in the coming years. In the meantime I will be swimming out in the Laguna Bluebelt doing my own “observational research” and letting you know what I see. I plan to start on Jan. 1st at noon by swimming out to the kelp bed from Main Beach and perhaps up to Monument Point to see if I can recreate this experience or have a new one. Anyone care to join me? If you don’t want to get in the water, bring your paddle board or kayak . We’ll meet at noon at the Lifeguard tower. Let’s celebrate the new year and the start of the restoration of the marine habitat in the Laguna Bluebelt.

Tidepool Tales and Kelp

admin — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 02:07:57 +0000

You don’t have to get into the water to notice the tremendous increase in the kelp forest off Laguna over the last year. A number of groups including thousands of individuals have been involved in the restoration of the giant kelp over the past few years. These efforts combined with good environmental conditions have contributed to the current healthy kelp habitat. A healthy kelp forest is vital to our marine habitat- over 800 different species rely on them.

If you do get in the water and go snorkeling or diving, you’ll notice that it’s not just the giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), but many other kelp species are thriving. There’s so much kelp in some places I have a hard time finding some of my favorite spots when I’m out snorkeling. I no longer can find a hole where I would usually spot an octopus- there’s just too much kelp around there to find the rock features that surrounded the octopus den.

There’s a natural bowl with a crack at the bottom where I can usually find moray eels (I once saw 3 in there!) but it’s hard to find because of all the kelp growing in that area. Also swimming now has the added challenge of zig-zagging around the kelp. These are small prices to pay for the enormous benefits that the kelp brings to our marine habitat. I certainly don’t want to go back to the days of clear, unobstructed views of the urchin barrens.

The increase in the kelp should lead to an increase in all the species that rely on kelp for a food source and shelter. When I swim out to the kelp forest I know I see a lot of fish hanging around- opal eye, kelp bass, senoritas, sargo, sardines and many others. Just the other day while out swimming near the kelp bed, I was surrounded by 100-200 yellowtail or white sea bass (sorry, I’m not that good at identifying fish). The visibility was maybe 10-15 ft so I couldn’t see that far, but I was in the middle of a big school of fish, some over 2 ft long.

The seals, sea lions, and dolphins seem to like the kelp forest as well- or more likely they’re attracted to all the fish hanging out in the kelp. I’ve had a few encounters with playful, curious harbor seals while swimming near the kelp. This one played with us for half an hour until we got cold and had to leave. If you go out kayaking or paddle boarding to the kelp forest you’re likely to have an encounter with one of our local marine mammals.

There’s a danger to the kelp forest lurking out there. Sea urchins are voracious consumers of kelp and unfortunately, the sea urchin population is out of control. I know in the last 6 months I have watched an explosion of urchins grow from small to medium on the rocky points surrounding Shaw’s Cove and they are devouring everything around them. We have removed their main predators- first the otter was driven to extinction in this area a century ago and now we take too many lobster and sheephead fish.

There is hope for the balance to be restored. The new Laguna Beach State marine reserve will protect most of Laguna’s coast. Marine reserves are no-take zones. This will allow the lobster and sheephead to increase in both numbers and size and hopefully keep the urchin population in check. I know I’m looking forward to observing (through a dive mask) the restoration of Laguna’s marine habitat continue and hopefully accelerate with the implementation of the new marine reserve. What changes have you noticed as the kelp forest has recovered? Please share your observations in the comments. Info on Giant Kelp from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Fishes of the Kelp Forest from the Birch Aquarium

Tips on Free Diving in Kelp

In watching seals and otters swim through the kelp effortlessly and without incident, we can learn a valuable lesson about being as streamlined as possible while diving. The problem for divers usually comes when they snag items that are not streamlined with the rest of their bodies. The most notorious culprits are dive knives, fin buckles, and snorkels. Read more.