The Blob Hit California's Kelp. Protected Kelp Came Back Faster.

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In 2014, two years after California
finished building its statewide network of

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marine protected areas, the Pacific Ocean
did something almost nobody expected.

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A marine heatwave named The Blob hit the
coast, and it didn't let go for two years.

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Kelp forests up and down the
state started collapsing.

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So the real test is how do these kelp
forests in this new marine protected

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area recover after the heat wave?

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This is what we're gonna be
discussing on this episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and
I'm a marine biologist and ocean

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communications manager for a,
company called Pisces Oceans.

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It's a consulting firm that helps
ocean projects succeed and have

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a greater impact on the ocean.

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Today we're gonna be talking about what
happened after the California Marine

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Protected Area Network went into place.

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Yesterday's episode was all about the
history of how it came into place.

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Then we're gonna talk about something
major that happened was the fact that

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a heat wave hit two years after it was
designated and all hell broke loose.

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And we're looking at how a network of
marine protected areas could recover

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after a heat wave or was it just the
fact that these were paper parks and

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nobody was actually managing them?

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So we're gonna talk about that and
what happened 'cause, uh, the thing

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is, like after one of these heat
waves hit, like the blob, one of

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the major heat waves that happened
during an El Niño and so many things

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happened that were bad, can it recover?

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Is that the idea?

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I mean, that's what a
marine protected area does.

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It takes away the human aspect of it,
the human disturbance, all the extractive

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processes that can happen, fishing,
mining, even some places where you can't

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do any kind of recreational activities
in these marine protected areas to make

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sure that these areas were gonna be fine
so that it could recover faster when

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these things happen with climate change.

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So we're gonna dive into
actually what happened.

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So two years after this marine protected
area was put together, this network, 2012.

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Two years later, between 2014 and 2016,
a marine heatwave and compounding El

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Niño conditions hit two years after
the network finished, and kelp forests

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statewide went into a large-scale
decline, the exact habitat that the

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original law was supposed to prioritize.

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Not only did that happen, but we saw sea
stars go through probably the one of the

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worst cases of, death in that we've seen.

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Like, just the decrease
that happened was unreal.

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They had sea star wasting disease,
which was like a disease that came on

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because of the heatwave, and we just
saw sea stars disintegrate right in

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front of us, and there was nothing we
could do about it until that bacteria or

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whatever it was that caused it went away.

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And now sea stars are a little on the
recovery, but still, it went through,

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like, something that was pretty dire.

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A lot of us thought that sea stars
would never be the same again.

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And the same thing with kelp.

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When we saw the heatwave happen, kelp
can't handle that much heat in that type

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of range, and so they started dying off.

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So the big thing is, is like
we couldn't do anything about

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the heatwave at that time.

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We can't just stop it in the
middle of what was happening.

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So we said, "Hey, how do we recover from
this? How do we make sure that these

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kelp forests continue to thrive after
this? Can they rebuild after this?" The

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problem really comes down to the question
of can the kelp habitats that produce

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and house a huge biodiverse, uh, system,
can they recover after the heat wave?

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And the only way to know that is really
to go into how management was done

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and how they looked at science data
to ensure that, you know, the kelp was

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actually recovering and not just hope
for the best after a 10-year review.

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So that check happened, for the first
time as a decadal management review,

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and it was led by the Department of Fish
and Wildlife for the Ocean Protection

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Council, drawing on long-term monitoring
across multiple habitat types, so kelp

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forests, rocky reefs, mid-depth rocky
reefs, sandy beaches and surf zone, deep

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habitats, and rocky intertidal zones.

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Twenty-four universities,
agencies, and research institutions

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contributed data to this program.

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The results came out as seven
separate technical reports, plus

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a synthesis report from an outside
research group, the National Center

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of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis,

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Specifically so the state wasn't
just grading its own work.

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So it wasn't as if the state went out
and collected all the data, did the

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reports, and everything like that.

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It was like they had a third party
look it over to make sure that

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the assessment was done properly.

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So after the heat wave happened,
looking at these types of reports

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and looking at this data was gonna be
really important to make sure that the

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kelp could recover or that we could
analyze whether the kelp recovered.

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Now, a peer review study out of UCLA
published in the Journal of Applied

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Ecology used nearly forty years of
satellite imagery from 1984 to 2022

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to compare kelp recovery inside
protected areas against similar

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unprotected stretches of coastline.

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The findings of that study found
that the kelp forests inside the

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MPAs recovered measurably faster
after the 2014 and 2016 heat wave

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than kelp outside of the protected
areas, with the clearest benefits

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showing up in Southern California.

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The proposed mechanism is
pretty straightforward.

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MPAs protect species like California spiny
lobster, sheephead, and other predators

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that kept kelp-eating urchins in check.

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With those predators intact, urchin
populations don't explode into the

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barren-forming outbreaks that can
wipe out a recovering kelp bed.

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That was the data.

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That's what they found, was the fact
that the predators like the sheephead,

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spiny lobster, were able to stay there,
even though the sea stars that were

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wiped out from the sea star wasting
disease during the heat wave were

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not there to account for a lot of the
predatory acts against sea urchins.

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So the kelp forests had the ability to
recover, whereas in outside the marine

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protected areas, those predators were gone
'cause they were able to be fished out,

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and so the population wasn't as strong.

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Now, hopefully in twenty years from
now or another ten years from now, we

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start seeing a spillover effect of the
predators inside the marine protected

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areas like sheephead, fish, as well as
the spiny lobster, to go outside of those

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boundaries and protect those areas and
start feasting on those sea urchins.

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So that is a big study to show what we
needed to know, was the fact that inside

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a marine protected area, the predators
of these sea urchins are protected

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and that will grow back and recover
to make sure that any kinda thing that

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happens to the kelp, like a marine
heat wave, the recovery will be a lot

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faster if those sea urchin predators
aren't there or they're kept in check.

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And that's just nature for you.

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If we allow nature to be nature, a
lot of the times they will recover,

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with, of course, some limitations.

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But this is what happens when you
do the right thing and you are in an

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MPA that is really great to do that.

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So following that review The California
Department of Fish and Wildlife

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released a formal set of prioritized
recommendations in 2023, organized

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around three areas: MPA governance, the
state's MPA management program itself,

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and the overall network performance.

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The Ocean Protection Council is now
folding those recommendations directly

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into California's broader 30 by 30
biodiversity commitment, which is

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protecting 30% of the state's lands
and waters by 2030, which we've talked

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a lot about on this podcast, and
treating the existing MPA network,

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already 16% of state waters, as a
foundation to strengthen rather than

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just a finished project to leave alone.

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Like I talked to you, uh, yesterday and
the day before with Anupa, how the fact

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that a lot of this reporting didn't come
out as new assessments for this area.

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So this must have been an older report.

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So but there have been scientific
reports that were released.

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I just wish they were released
for a lot of the people that we

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talked about on Monday, but just
it doesn't seem to happen that way.

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So the fact is that we know that the
ten years of monitoring, seven technical

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reports, one synthesis report, nearly
four decades of satellite data in the UCLA

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study that I talked about, sixteen percent
of state waters are currently protected.

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We know that this is working, and this
is a great foundation to build on and

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maybe expand some MPAs, maybe look at
areas where climate change can't have

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that much of an effect, and we can start
prioritizing those areas to be protected.

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And this is a chance to look at the
effectiveness of the MPAs and see where

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we can put either more or expand some
just to make sure that we're protecting

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more of the state waters because
that's an important aspect, right?

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The same review process is gonna
happen in another ten years.

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Hopefully, they start doing it in smaller
chunks because I think that's really

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important to do it in smaller chunks.

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But the fact is that this is
the way the system is set up.

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I would prefer, every five years at
minimum to do this type of study, uh,

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and I think that's important to have.

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But the thing is, is that this
MPA system, this network, produces

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those checkable, assessments to make
sure that things are going well.

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This is not to say that California
failed or passed or anything.

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These assessments are not for that.

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These are assessments to make sure
that if anything has changed, like a

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marine heatwave, we can see how things
are recovering and how they work.

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In fact, it's a way to say, "Hey,
you know what? This works so well

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that kelp recovered inside the MPAs
instead of outside the MPAs, so we

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should start expanding more." It's
a case to have more because we need

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more kelp forests to be protected.

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That's the show for today.

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it's pretty quick and easy, show.

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It's what we, It's what we do here.

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We kind of bring you the information
because I don't want people to think,

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"Oh, here's a marine protected area.
It's not effective." You know, because we

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don't really hear about what works when
we hear in the press, and this works.

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So I want you guys to hear it
here first before you go off and

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be like, "Hey, you know what?

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Like I don't think this is
actually working." If you know

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it works that becomes a big
benefit for us, in the future.

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Now, uh, Thursday's episode, uh,
we're gonna shift, uh, from, hey,

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does this work, does this MPA work,
to how do people get heard about

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what is happening next, right?

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Or what happens next.

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And so that's really a callback
to, you know, the Monday's episode

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with Anupa, where we looked at, how
this process didn't really allow

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everybody to be heard, and I think
that's really important, to discuss.

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and that's a good thing because we
need to make sure that that process

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is better, when we go forward.

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So this is something that's
really important to me.

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I hope it's important to you.

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That's the episode for today, so thank you
so much for joining me on today's episode

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of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I am your host, Andrew Lewin.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.