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This project is a collaborative effort involving coastal enthusiasts, researchers, and organizations to promote healthier and more resilient coastlines across Britain.
Investigate kelp along your stretch of coastline
Type of activity: Outdoor sampling of kelp and an online survey
Who can take part? Anyone who has access to a beach with kelp on it
When? Ongoing
Where? We would love you to survey any beach or rocky shoreline that has kelp on it. If you’re unsure where to go, please email [email protected] for suggestions.
How long will it take? 45 minutes to survey, then a 10-minute online form
By engaging with nature and participating in coastal activities, you can enhance your mental well-being while contributing valuable insights into the management and protection of coastal ecosystems.
The first strand of this project was the Underwater Forests survey.
We have also developed a Coastal Health Toolkit that helps people design, deliver and improve coastal community science projects around UK shores. View the toolkit.
This survey is recording kelp forests along the British coastline. Kelp forests are one of Earth's most productive habitats: they support a wide variety of marine life by providing habitat, shelter and nursery grounds for species such as seabream, bass, cuttlefish, lobsters and a wide range of marine invertebrates.
Kelp forests also alter the movement of water on the coastline and can provide a buffer against storm damage by reducing wave energy onto the land.
Participants survey the kelp every month at a given location on the lowest tide of the month.
The survey consists of:
You can download the instructions to print at home (PDF 23MB), or email [email protected] and we will send you a booklet.
You will also need a quadrat, a square frame used to identify a survey area for scientific study. The Underwater Forest survey uses a 1m x 1m quadrat. A quadrat can be bought online or you can make your own with bamboo or string:
Professor Juliet Brodie is a merit research specialising in seaweeds at the Natural History Museum, London. She is passionate about her research which focuses on seaweeds in a time of rapid environmental change and has taken her to many parts of the world.
Dr Chris Yesson is a senior research fellow at the Zoological Society of London. Chris studies a variety of seabed habitats in coastal, shallow and deep seas around the UK and beyond. He has been studying kelp for more than a decade and is research lead for the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project.
If you have any queries, please contact the Community Science team at [email protected] with 'Coastal Health' in your subject line.
The Underwater Forests project is part of the UK government’s HM Treasury funded Coastal Health, Livelihoods and Environment Shared Outcomes Fund. This aims to provide a data and analytical framework to understand and monitor health status of coastal marine organisms and their ecosystems.
If you live near the sea, why not take part in our other coastal survey?
Visit the Big Seaweed Search webpage to help us record how seaweeds around the UK may be being affected by climate change.
