Tuesday October 6, 2026
UC San Diego —
Ask any scuba diver what it’s like to experience a kelp forest underwater, and they’re likely to wax poetic about the magic found beneath the canopy.
“Diving in a kelp forest is unlike any other experience you could have on the planet,” said Jennifer Smith, a marine biologist at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “It’s like flying through a redwood forest, although you’re underwater. You’ve got fish occupying different habitats, and on the bottom, everything’s so colorful and big…and as you look up towards the surface, you see the sunlight flickering through the golden kelp blades. It’s just incredibly beautiful, and probably one of my favorite places on the planet.”
Beyond their natural beauty, kelp forests provide a host of valuable ecosystem services. Along the California coast and elsewhere, these iconic underwater forests create complex, three-dimensional habitats that support an extraordinary variety of life in shallow waters. They also sustain fisheries and tourism, generating important revenue for coastal communities. And they are even thought to help protect coastlines by buffering storm impacts.