Threatened Species

Kelp at Wine Glass Bay, Freycinet National Park, Tasmania.

Kelp leaves called fronds can grow up to 50 centimetres a day and it forms dense canopies up to 35 metres above the seabed.

Most of us eat kelp regularly, by consuming ice-cream or jelly. Products made from kelp are used to thicken these foods, and other products like toothpaste. In Australia, giant kelp is harvested from the beaches of King Island in Bass Strait.

The size and number of giant kelp beds in Tasmania has greatly fallen over the last 30 years. Only about five per cent of the original area remains, and the kelp forests are threatened with local extinction in some areas. Scientists think that a number of factors may be causing this decline:

• Over-harvesting in some areas
• The fall of dissolved nutrient levels in the ocean waters of Tasmania
• The increase in water temperature off eastern Tasmania: a rise of 1.5°C since the 1960s.

To ensure that the giant kelp forests stay around into the next century, they need to be protected in marine national parks and reserves, and the threats affecting them need to be stopped.

Canon 40D 18-55 IS polariser