Pilot Bull Kelp Restoration Project

This project was completed as proposed. The Tribe provided field and technical assistance to Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF) to investigate the success of multiple bull kelp, Nereocystis, reintroduction methods to marine habitats in the Suquamish Tribes Usual and Accustomed fishing areas where bull kelp once flourished. The local ecological impacts of this loss are not well understood, but bull kelp research indicates bull kelp is an important functional habitat element (forage and refuge) for many marine species, provides energy dissipation to nearshore habitat, and nutrient input and distribution to intertidal nearshore and subtidal food webs through wrack deposits and blade shedding. The Tribe provided the research boat, diver, and underwater photography to support PSRF, and the Port Gamble SKlallam Tribe. Bull kelp was re-introduced at three historic bull kelp forest locations: Restoration Point (southeast end of Bainbridge Island); Jefferson Head (adjacent to Doe Kag Wats, Port Madison Indian Reservation); and off Point Julia (Little Boston SKlallam Reservation). PSRF tested two treatments to reintroduce bull kelp to the treatment locations: (1) by seeding biodegradable natural fiber ropes with native sporophytes collected from mature sorus under laboratory conditions at Taylor Shellfishs Quilcene Shellfish Hatchery; and (2) collecting mature sorus later in the growing season (September) and outplanting aggregated packages containing the sorus. These outplants introduced zoospores to the site, and recruited gametophyte to natural substrate. Both treatments, established in paired-arrays for the 2011 field trials, were employed at each of three project sites. Underwater photographs and field logs will be used to report project results at the UW Bull Kelp Symposium at Friday Harbor in 2012.

The purpose of this project is to test and improve methods for restoring bull kelp in Puget Sound.