1 00:00:05,772 --> 00:00:10,276 Puget Sound is an estuary and it's one of the largest on the continent. 2 00:00:11,111 --> 00:00:13,713 Estuaries are productive places. 3 00:00:17,050 --> 00:00:19,052 Here in Puget Sound, 4 00:00:19,052 --> 00:00:22,555 the carbon factories are the macro algal 5 00:00:22,655 --> 00:00:26,292 and kelp communities that are taking all of these nutrients 6 00:00:26,292 --> 00:00:29,429 and minerals that are coming off of the land in our watersheds 7 00:00:30,263 --> 00:00:35,802 and turning it into something that can be used in the food web. 8 00:00:35,802 --> 00:00:39,472 Whether you're talking about mussels or shrimp or crab 9 00:00:39,672 --> 00:00:41,775 or salmon or whales, 10 00:00:42,642 --> 00:00:44,944 they have kelp carbon in them. 11 00:00:46,946 --> 00:00:49,416 And that functionality and that productivity 12 00:00:49,416 --> 00:00:50,683 starts with kelp. 13 00:00:55,822 --> 00:00:57,457 We don't know why, 14 00:00:57,457 --> 00:00:59,759 all of the reasons why kelp has declined. 15 00:01:01,027 --> 00:01:02,996 Kelps were being surveyed 16 00:01:02,996 --> 00:01:05,331 initially because it was important for navigation. 17 00:01:05,632 --> 00:01:09,135 And because of that, we're able to document losses in Puget Sound. 18 00:01:10,103 --> 00:01:12,372 It's those historic areas that right now 19 00:01:12,372 --> 00:01:17,510 we're looking at targeting for some kind of restoration. 20 00:01:18,978 --> 00:01:23,216 We're at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Manchester Research Station. 21 00:01:23,883 --> 00:01:27,854 This is where the Puget Sound Restoration Fund operates 22 00:01:27,854 --> 00:01:29,856 the Ken Chew Center, 23 00:01:29,856 --> 00:01:34,294 which is shellfish hatchery, shellfish research center. 24 00:01:34,828 --> 00:01:37,464 But also it's where our kelp lab facilities are. 25 00:01:38,798 --> 00:01:40,900 This one looks really good. Wow. 26 00:01:41,701 --> 00:01:44,838 One of the things that the lab allows us to do 27 00:01:45,338 --> 00:01:49,008 is to curate and manage a seed bank. 28 00:01:49,642 --> 00:01:55,648 So we will go to a kelp forest and we will make a collection of material 29 00:01:55,648 --> 00:01:59,919 there from the wild kelp, and we'll bring it into the laboratory. 30 00:01:59,919 --> 00:02:05,592 And we can collect the spores that those kelps are producing. 31 00:02:05,992 --> 00:02:08,661 Right now we have roughly 20 32 00:02:08,661 --> 00:02:14,100 populations in Puget Sound of bull kelp that are in our seed bank currently, 33 00:02:14,601 --> 00:02:19,372 and that's what we'll use for our field experiments on the enhancement trials. 34 00:02:24,744 --> 00:02:27,280 We are headed to Point Jefferson. 35 00:02:28,348 --> 00:02:32,585 We're going to go check on our experimental kelp bed. 36 00:02:34,921 --> 00:02:39,125 Between these two bouys here and this is what the Suquamish tribe 37 00:02:39,526 --> 00:02:42,929 calls the Doe Kag Wats estuary. 38 00:02:43,696 --> 00:02:46,699 There is lots of species of kelp that live in Puget Sound. 39 00:02:47,233 --> 00:02:50,537 We're concerned with the canopy species because of its 40 00:02:50,537 --> 00:02:53,139 particular function as structured habitat. 41 00:02:54,641 --> 00:02:57,377 Our historic kelp bed 42 00:02:57,610 --> 00:03:00,280 was right along this stretch of shoreline. 43 00:03:01,447 --> 00:03:02,815 That's the bull kelp. 44 00:03:02,815 --> 00:03:06,653 So that's what we call Nereocystis. 45 00:03:06,653 --> 00:03:08,988 And so we planted that here from seed 46 00:03:08,988 --> 00:03:11,891 that we produced in our lab in February. 47 00:03:13,259 --> 00:03:16,596 It grew from microscopic to what 48 00:03:16,596 --> 00:03:19,766 we see here today in the adult sporophyte. 49 00:03:21,601 --> 00:03:24,003 If it's healthy, we should see 50 00:03:24,003 --> 00:03:26,906 abundant kelp where we planted it. 51 00:03:30,843 --> 00:03:35,248 Generally, if it is doing what the adult should be doing, 52 00:03:35,248 --> 00:03:37,951 which is producing spores 53 00:03:38,518 --> 00:03:40,954 that's the best indicator of health. 54 00:03:43,523 --> 00:03:44,857 Size and shape 55 00:03:44,857 --> 00:03:48,494 and we monitor that over time to see how it grows. 56 00:03:48,795 --> 00:03:53,833 We look at the condition of the blade and whether it's producing a lot of blades. 57 00:03:53,833 --> 00:03:56,669 So we actually go through and enumerate the number of blades. 58 00:03:58,338 --> 00:04:00,206 All right, 28 blades. 59 00:04:00,206 --> 00:04:05,211 Also damage from grazers. There's all kinds of things that like to eat bull kelp. 60 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:08,281 Plants look good. 61 00:04:08,281 --> 00:04:09,349 They're growing well. 62 00:04:09,349 --> 00:04:11,384 They're right where they should be at the right time. 63 00:04:11,384 --> 00:04:15,121 And they're doing what they're supposed to do, which is to produce the spores 64 00:04:15,321 --> 00:04:16,990 for the natural substrate here. 65 00:04:20,460 --> 00:04:22,128 This site is naturally occurring, 66 00:04:22,128 --> 00:04:24,731 which means no one's planting kelp here. 67 00:04:25,565 --> 00:04:27,700 A piece of cobble. 68 00:04:28,401 --> 00:04:31,638 It's really exciting to see so much that's 69 00:04:32,138 --> 00:04:35,241 creating all the habitat and the other functions of kelp 70 00:04:35,508 --> 00:04:40,079 right along an area where there's hundreds of thousands of people living. 71 00:04:43,716 --> 00:04:46,819 And each crop of bull kelp is an annual crop. 72 00:04:46,819 --> 00:04:50,990 So the one that we see this summer has to sufficiently 73 00:04:50,990 --> 00:04:55,495 seed the bottom with kelp for there to be kelp next year. 74 00:04:55,528 --> 00:04:58,931 And so how do we cause that paradigm? 75 00:04:59,432 --> 00:05:01,067 How do we facilitate that? 76 00:05:02,902 --> 00:05:06,139 That's the work that we have to do right now.