A marine rewilding initiative to restore an underwater kelp forest in West Sussex is celebrating “remarkable” results, a wildlife trust has said.
The project was launched after the implementation of a new bylaw prohibiting trawling in a 117 sq mile (302 sq km) coastal area between Shoreham-by-Sea and Selsey in March 2021.
Celebrating its fourth anniversary, Sussex Kelp Recovery Project (SKRP) researchers have reported positive signs of recovery, including an increase in the populations of lobster, brown crab, angelshark and short-snouted seahorse.
Kelp, I understand, is a huge
carbon sinkoxygen producer and it grows incredibly fast. Overfishing leads to urchins eating them up though and they begin to starve. It becomes a self reinforcing cycle because predators won’t eat the starved ones, which become zombie-like and survive to keep eating the kelp.I’m not sure I’m remembering all the details right off the dome, but I know there was one group trying to make robots that destroy the zombie urchins so kelp forests can regrow.
Sounds like an interesting movie plot. Zombies robots and an at risk forest being saved by activists.
You might enjoy this: https://grist.org/climate-fiction/imagine2200-mousedeer-versus-the-ghost-ships/