The secret life of kelp

This week, we dive into the secret life of kelp…

Kelp is found in the seas around the British Isles, including Cornwall, yet it is often overlooked in nature, controversial in food, and infrequently understood or appreciated. Yet this alga holds more interest and potential than you might imagine.

Take a walk along the beach and look down and away from the birds floating easily overhead and the white ribbons of the waves as they crash over one another. At your feet, you find kelp among the many varieties of seaweed spread out by the tide in unpredictable bundles and twists. This mass of water plants is evidence of a storm now past, where the currents at seabed level had the strength to tear seaweed from its root-like holdfasts attached to the rocks.

“In a flat, clear sea, when there’s lots of sunlight, the kelp moves back and forth almost hypnotically with the movement of the tides, swells and currents.”

– Katie Maggs, local snorkel instructor.

Kelp Conservation

The strands pictured above form a part of the kelp forests under the tide line, a shelter for a vast array of sealife. It is food to others as well as a protector of coasts against erosion with its ability to absorb the wave power. Like forests, they also act as carbon sinks, and new research is attempting to prove the significance of their environmental contribution. 

Katie Maggs, a Penzance-based snorkel instructor @tonicofthesea on Instagram, is working to progress conservation with Mounts Bay Marine Conservation Group @mountsbaymarinegroup. They are currently working with Cornwall Wildlife Trust, monitoring kelp in the bay using a snorkelling method with GPS. This work includes areas that have been inaccessible during previous efforts that solely used equipment attached to boats.

Because she has been snorkelling in the same places almost daily, Katie has become easily attuned to changes in patches of kelp along the coast, changes that are so important to monitor and understand as the first step in any conservation work. Katie also took part in the award-winning film Green Ocean Gold, which illustrates some of the ways kelp and other seaweeds are being used to imitate plastic and provide solutions for the climate crisis.

Forest Swimming

For Katie, the real joy is to catch sight of kelp forests, “In a flat clear sea, when there’s lots of sunlight, the kelp moves back and forth almost hypnotically with the movement of the tides, swells and currents”.

It is here that kelp forests serve as a habitat for marine life. A snorkelling trip with Katie may uncover slinking baby seals, colour-changing cuttlefish or curious octopus. Details like this contribute to the mental health benefits of Katie’s snorkelling sessions, which are socially prescribed by the NHS for well-being.

Highly prized

Image credit: Sarah Jane Humphreys

Whether found washed up on the beach or carefully foraged, kelp is a prized find for many. It can be processed as health supplements, beauty products, fertilisers, plastic alternatives, art or food. This versatility is thanks to the mineral-rich sea environment in which kelp grows, which gives it a higher nutrient mix than land plants.

Sarah Jane Humphrey, a Falmouth-based artist @sarahgalerie, enjoys using kelp in her home cooking as it brings her dishes to life and has so many health properties. When she can’t forage for it, she uses a dried version from The Cornish Seaweed Company. Having realised the broad benefits of sea plants, the company has been a pioneer in the UK seaweed industry. They have developed a range of products, all sustainably foraged and handled to preserve their nutrients, helping people to use kelp in their cookery. The complex flavour these plants bring to food is also being realised by a growing number of chefs too, like Jude Kereama at Kota, in Porthleven, who uses seaweed in his mussel fritters with seaweed tartar dish.

Golden Tones

Image credit: Sarah Jane Humphreys (seaweed painting)

Sarah’s work as a botanical artist closely draws on her love for the sea. She creates intricate depictions of seaweed found in intertidal zones along the Cornish coast. Recently, she has also begun a project using her own handmade seaweed ink to create drawings that reflect the narrative of research on kelp’s abilities as a carbon sink by creating a tangible connection to the sea.

When working with seaweeds in the studio, Sarah’s days spent free diving and photographing rock pools are a continual source of inspiration. It is in these moments, as the quiet hush of the deep fills her ears, that the sea and its kelp forests come together, and the kelp begins to move like flames as they slip through pools of brightness, to highlight their golden tones and flowing forms.

If you find yourself surrounded by seaweed storm trails this secret season, and you stumble across the telltale ribbons and holdfast of kelp, you can now look upon it with a new appreciation.