The secret life of…kelp
27th February 2025
A different side of Cornwall has drifted into view. It’s the season for uncovering shoreline secrets, from the easily overlooked shifts in coastal flora and fauna – those unique sights and experiences you can only find by the sea – to digging into local art and culture, and how to serve the freshest catches made out in the wild seas.
This week, we dive into the secret life of kelp…
Kelp is often overlooked in nature, controversial in food, and infrequently understood or appreciated. Yet this alga holds more interest and potential than you might imagine.
Take a walk along the beach, and look…down. Away from the birds floating easily overhead and the white ribbons of the waves as they continuously crash over each other. At your feet you find kelp among the varieties of seaweed spread out by the tide in unpredictable bundles and twists. This mass of water plants is evidence of a storm now past that had the strength to move the waves to tear the body of this seaweed from their root-like holdfasts attached to the rocks.
“In a flat clear sea when there’s lots of sunlight the kelp moves back and forth almost hypnotically with the movement of the tides, swells and currents”.
KELP CONSERVATION
These strands formed a part of the kelp forests under the tide line, sheltering a vast array of sea life: food to others and protecting the coast from erosion by absorbing the power of the waves. Like forests they also act as carbon sinks, and new research is attempting to prove the significance of their environmental contribution. Katie Maggs – a Penzance-based snorkel instructor @tonicofthesea on Instagram – is working to progress conservation with Mounts Bay Marine Conservation Group – @mountsbaymarinegroup. The group are “currently working with Cornwall Wildlife Trust monitoring kelp in the bay using a snorkelling method with GPS.” This work includes areas that have been inaccessible to previous efforts that solely use equipment attached to boats.
Because she has been snorkelling in the same places almost daily, Katie has become easily attuned to changes in patches of kelp along the coast, changes that are so important to monitor and understand as the first step in any conservation work. Katie also took part in the award winning film Green Ocean Gold which illustrates some of the ways kelp and other seaweeds are being used to imitate plastic, and provide solutions for the climate crisis.
FOREST SWIMMING
But for Katie, the real joy is to catch sight of these forests underwater. “In a flat clear sea when there’s lots of sunlight the kelp moves back and forth almost hypnotically with the movement of the tides, swells and currents”.
After all, it is here that it serves as a habitat for marine life. A snorkelling trip with Katie may uncover “slinking baby seals, colour changing cuttlefish or curious octopus”. Details like this contribute to the mental health benefits of Katie’s snorkelling sessions, which are socially prescribed by the NHS for well-being.
Recently she has also begun a project “using [her] own handmade seaweed ink to create drawings that reflect the narrative of research on kelp’s abilities as a carbon sink”
Image credit: Sarah Jane Humphreys (seaweed painting)
HIGHLY PRIZED
Washed up on the beach, or carefully foraged, kelp is a prized find for many, to be processed into health supplements, beauty products, fertilisers, plastic alternatives, art or food. This versatility is thanks to the mineral rich sea environment they are grown in, which gives them a higher nutrient mix than land plants.
Sarah Jane Humphrey – a Falmouth-based artist @sarahgalerie – enjoys using kelp in her cooking at home as it “brings food to life and has so many health properties”. When she can’t forage for it, she uses a dried version from The Cornish Seaweed Company. Having realised the broad benefits of sea plants, the company has been a pioneer in the UK seaweed industry. They have developed a range of products, all sustainably foraged and handled to preserve their nutrients and help people to use this in their everyday cooking. The complex flavour these plants bring to food is also being realised by a growing number of chefs too, like Jude Kereama at Kota who uses seaweed in his mussel fritters with seaweed tartar dish.
Image credit: Sarah Jane Humphreys
GOLDEN TONES
Sarah’s work as a botanical artist closely draws on her love for the sea. She creates intricate depictions of seaweed found in intertidal zones along the coast. Recently she has also begun a project “using [her] own handmade seaweed ink to create drawings that reflect the narrative of research on kelp’s abilities as a carbon sink” by creating a tangible connection to the sea.
When working with seaweeds in the studio, Sarah’s days spent freediving and photographing rock pools are a continual source of inspiration. It is in these moments, as the quiet hush of the sea fills her ears, that the sea and kelp forests come together, and the kelp begins to move like flames as they slip through pools of brightness, to highlight their “golden tones and flowing forms”.
If you find yourself surrounded by seaweed storm trails this Secret Season, and you stumble across the telltale ribbons and holdfast of kelp, look upon it with a new appreciation.
Eager to explore more? Watch Seaweed Foraging on Film to learn about finding and cooking seaweed or get rock-pool ready with Dr Ben Holt at The Rock Pool Project.
Stay by the sea this Secret Season…
