Habitats: Kelp -Humans & the Environment

Kelp is harvested commercially for food and for other substances, like alginates, which are used as thickeners. Kelp as a food is an important part of many island cultures. In some parts of the world, it is grown on huge frames suspended in the water so that it is easier to harvest. Using this method, kelp farmers are not dependent on the rocky bottom teeming with hungry sea urchins!

Recreation kelp forests are popular places to dive, since they offer such a large variety of fish and other sea creatures to observe.

Along the western coast of North America, one of the main concerns in kelp beds is maintaining a balanced ecosystem. When one type of creature becomes too plentiful, the natural balance is thrown off, and the whole kelp bed suffers. One way this natural balance can be disturbed is when large cities pump sewage into the ocean. This can cause a boom in the numbers of urchins, which will cause widespread destruction of the forests by chewing the kelp streamers free from their holdfasts. Unless the populations of sea otters and other predators rise as well, the numbers of urchins can grow too great, and large portions of kelp beds can be destroyed.