Kelp forest restoration is happening at a new scale off Tofino, British Columbia, where the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, the Redd Fish Restoration Society and West Coast Kelp launched a kelp nursery in Clayoquot Sound in early 2026. Organizers call it the largest kelp restoration project on the west coast of North America, and it has planted more than 4,200 square metres of new kelp so far. It also has a helper: the sea otter, hunted to near extinction in the fur trade and now back in Clayoquot Sound by the hundreds. In this episode of Ocean Decoded, marine biologist Andrew Lewin breaks down how the nursery works and why the team asked the Nation where to plant.
The nursery grows bull kelp and giant kelp on four lines, each 330 metres long, held below the surface where urchins on the seafloor can't reach them. Bull kelp can grow 15 centimetres in a day. As the kelp matures, the team transplants it around the Sound to restore old forests and seed new ones. Redd Fish maps today's kelp beds with drones, and for where kelp grew in the past, there was no written record, so the Tla-o-qui-aht told them. The Nation never hunted sea otters because they knew otters kept urchins in check. In Haida Gwaii, the Haida Nation and Parks Canada showed what that balance does when divers removed 75% of urchins along three kilometres of Murchison Island between 2017 and 2019 and kelp returned. Otters bring costs too, eating the clams, crabs and urchins people harvest, and Nuu-chah-nulth nations have pushed back on federal sea otter management that sidelined their food security.
The nursery has had setbacks. Bull kelp's air-filled bladders lifted the lines toward the surface, where the kelp bleached, and the team had to weigh them down. Underwater cameras now track which animals use the kelp, with young salmon a central goal, and proving the forests survive will take at least a decade. Andrew closes with three questions to ask the next time you see a restoration headline, and a reminder that protecting the kelp forests we still have comes first.
Chapters:
00:00 - Kelp forests feel like a lost cause
01:37 - Why Indigenous-led conservation matters
03:37 - "We were told where to plant"
05:29 - Kelp shelter for young salmon
06:41 - Where to go deeper on ocean protection
Takeaways
The Clayoquot Sound kelp nursery is a partnership between the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, Redd Fish Restoration Society and West Coast Kelp, launched in early 2026.
It has planted more than 4,200 square metres of new kelp, grown on four 330-metre lines held out of reach of sea urchins.
The Nation's knowledge filled the gap where no written record of historical kelp beds existed.
Sea otters eat the urchins that eat kelp, and about 1,500 now live in and around Clayoquot Sound.
Urchin removal in Haida Gwaii brought kelp back along three kilometres of shoreline.
Otters also compete with people for shellfish, and Nuu-chah-nulth nations want a real say in how otters are managed.
Restoration takes at least a decade to prove, and it works best alongside protecting existing kelp forests.
Before trusting a restoration headline, ask who decided where to plant, what's eating the kelp, and how they'll know it worked.
#OceanConservation #MarineBiology #SaveOurOceans #ProtectTheOcean #OceanAwareness #BluePlanet #ConservationMatters #ScienceForChange #SustainableOceans
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