The Vanishing Kelp Forests of Northern California
More than 95% of the kelp forests have disappeared along the Northern California Coast
SEQUOIAS OF THE SEA tells the story of the environmental, cultural and economic destruction impacting a coastal town that has lost its coastal kelp forest. It’s a deep dive into the lives of fishermen, tribes, scientists, and a community working to restore a habitat devastated by a warming climate.
Kelp forests cover a quarter of the world’s coastlines, providing food and shelter for thousands of species, while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. But over the past decade a third of these forests have been lost across the planet. Along the 350 mile stretch of coastline from San Francisco to the Oregon Border we have lost a striking 95% of kelp forests. While many other important ocean ecosystems are getting attention, such as coral reefs, kelp is the lost forest of the ocean that is disappearing before our eyes.
With a perfect storm of climate change causing warming oceans, sea stars disappearing and urchin populations exploding, we are witnessing an ecological disaster in one of the most highly managed and protected coasts in the world.
We will take you on a dive through the cold rough waters of northern California, where most have never set eyes, bringing the audience beneath the surface of the ocean to highlight the beauty, fragility and resilience of California’s hidden forest. What’s happening in the ocean is changing lives on land, bringing fishermen, scientists and tribe members together, to restore this critical ecosystem and build a new blue economy.
International Ocean Film Festival Screening
April 12th, 2024 4pm
Screening of a ‘work in progress’ of Sequoias of the Sea on April 12, 2024 at the International Ocean Film Foundation Film Festival followed by a Q&A with Directors/Producers Natasha Benjamin and Ana Blanco.
Read more about our vanishing kelp forests in this New York Times article, “Warmer Oceans Threaten Another California Forest, This One Underwater”
“Kelp forests are very similar to their terrestrial counterparts, they are the sequoias of the sea.”
— Norah Eddy, The Nature Conservancy
Sequoias of the Sea
The Vanishing Kelp Forests of California
A Film by Natasha Benjamin and Ana Blanco.
A project of Blue Frontier