June 17: Kelp

Kelp on the beach. Photo: Jacque Comery

 The kelp that lays around the beach is such an interesting thing.  It is so tough and hard you cannot tear it. It feels like  thick leather, and I am not the first person to muse how this would go on a sofa (and yes, the conclusion was nice for a day, then not so well as it rots!). If you try and bite it you can easily punch through its tough skin. Inside it has an interesting honeycomb like structure which is also evident in the pattern on the outside of this freshly washed up example.
Where is grows in big mats in the near shore area it attenuates the surf to a great degree, creating calmer pockets especially at low tide for the elephant seals to wallow in, and for the penguins to enter and exit the water without falling all over the place!
Piles of it are tossed up onto the beach by the huge seas that every passing storm brings.
I can only ponder how beautiful these kelp forests must appear from below the surface, and what an amazing habitat it must create for the  animals that swim amongst it and shelter in it.