Underwater gardening helping to restore Tasmania's lost kelp forests

Linnea Bird, a 25-year-old Masters student from the United States, traveled to Tasmania to join a unique internship program focused on restoring the island's rapidly disappearing giant kelp forests. She felt a personal connection to the project, having grown up seeing kelp forests in California.

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Growing up in California and seeing the kelp forests there, it's always been something that I've been interested in. Being able to go across the world and see very similar ecosystems, but also just different biodiversity, has really drawn me to Tasmania.

"Being able to go across the world and see very similar ecosystems, but also just different biodiversity, has really drawn me to Tasmania," Bird said. She is one of six interns at the Eaglehawk Dive Centre, south of Hobart, participating in the Tasmanian Giant Kelp Restoration Project.

Tasmania's giant kelp forests have suffered a dramatic decline since the 1940s, primarily due to rising water temperatures and invasive sea urchin populations. Dive instructor Pauline Nuttens, who heads the internship program, witnessed the devastation firsthand. She recalled working as a dive instructor in 2015 and returning the next summer to find a large kelp forest had vanished within a year.

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The loss of the kelp has a massive impact on our ecosystem. For people who understand that, and want to do something about it, that's great. The ecosystem behind a kelp forest is huge. It's habitat protection, provides food and is a nursery as well for many, many marine species.

"The loss of the kelp has a massive impact on our ecosystem. For people who understand that, and want to do something about it, that's great," Nuttens said. "The ecosystem behind a kelp forest is huge. It's habitat protection, provides food and is a nursery as well for many, many marine species."

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It was gone in less than a year, a big forest … that was a big shock to me. This is when I realised how catastrophic this was.

The restoration technique, developed by Scott Ling from the University of Tasmania, involves growing kelp spores in a laboratory on spools. Divers then attach these spools to the base of existing seaweed at protected locations off the Tasman Peninsula. Scott Bennett, a marine ecologist at IMAS, estimates that about 95% of Tasmania's giant kelp forests have been lost, highlighting the urgency of the restoration efforts and the value of the internship program in providing crucial hands for this work.

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Our best estimates are that we've lost about 95 per cent of giant kelp forests across Tasmania, and those numbers are probably even higher now.