Regional Kelp Monitoring

Kelp is a valuable component of the marine habitat, which provides important benefits to communities, species, and ecosystems. It is also very important culturally for First Nations. MaPP is implementing a Regional Kelp Monitoring Project to monitor the extent and condition of kelp forests across all four sub-regions.

Please visit Regional Kelp Monitoring on the North Pacific Coast: A Community-Based Monitoring Initiative to Inform Ecosystem-Based Management, a StoryMap to learn more about our work on this key Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) indicator. Components of the StoryMap include the importance of kelp, kelp facts, the kelp monitoring framework including how kelp is monitored, sub-regional highlights, collaborators supporting data collection, lessons learned, and the vision for the future.

Click here to view/download the MaPP Monitoring Methods (2021) document.

A series of training videos about kelp monitoring has been created. The videos cover the following topics:

  • 01 Canopy Kelp Introduction
  • 02 Canopy Kelp Monitoring Tiers
  • 03 Survey Data Guidelines
  • 04 Tier 1 Step 1
  • 05 Tier 1 Step 2
  • 06 Tier 1 Step 3
  • 08 Tier 2 Step 2 Bull Kelp
  • 09 Tier 2 Step 2 Giant Kelp
  • 10 Tier 2 Step 3
  • Drone Survey Methods
  • Estimating Bryozoan Coverage

A series of kelp monitoring training videos has been produced.