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Race to save giant kelp off Tasmanian coast as sea temperatures rise
Efforts include app to track their sightings, breeding them to tolerate warm water
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Forests of giant kelp once stretched along the entire seabed off the east coast of Tasmania in Australia. This kelp, which can grow to 30m in length, is the largest and fastest-growing sea plant. It is also an important food source and habitat, and is crucial to sustaining marine diversity. But due to rising sea temperatures, 95 per cent of giant kelp forests there have been destroyed.
PHOTO: EAGLEHAWK DIVE CENTRE
Jonathan Pearlman For The Straits Times In Sydney, Jonathan Pearlman
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Beneath the waters off the island of Tasmania in Australia are ancient forests made up of giant kelp, a form of seaweed that can grow up to 50cm a day.
But these forests, which once stretched along the entire seabed off the east coast of the island, have been fast disappearing.
