City of Goleta Bay Kelp Restoration Project

Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, CA – Beach Erosion Authority for Clean Oceans and Nourishment (BEACON) and its partners are restoring the historic kelp bed in Goleta Bay, California. The “sand dwelling” kelp bed in Goleta Bay was completely destroyed in the 1982-1983 El Nino storms.

Thousands of acres of sand-dwelling kelp beds, along the southern California coast, were lost in the winter of 1982-1983. None of those once commercially productive have naturally returned. The 215 acre giant kelp bed in Goleta bay kept the prevailing current heading east and down coast.

Over the past 35 years, the +200′ wide beach along the Goleta bay coast has also disappeared. This unprecedented loss of beach sand is due to the loss of the enormous kelp bed in Goleta bay.

We have developed a kelp recruiting and growing system that will assist the natural recovery of giant kelp plants. The proof of concept phase has been underway since 2015 and now that we have seen some success we are pursuing phase II – Methods, Materials and Density

_{Source: coastalnewstoday.com}