Puget Sound was a global kelp capital for millennia. If we work together, we can enlist the next generation of conservationists to jumpstart the recovery of kelp, salmon, and orca.

Divers at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium are surveying kelp at two new sites in Tacoma this summer, helping with Puget Sound recovery efforts.

As Puget Sound kelp farms navigate a nascent permitting process, environmental watchdog groups are asking for more scrutiny toward an untested local industry.

“You can imagine how big Puget Sound is,” said Jeff Whitty, Puget Sound Kelp Conservation and Recovery Plan project coordinator at the Northwest Straits Commission.

Bull kelp once cloaked Puget Sound's shorelines, providing habitat for other species and preventing erosion. They've been in decline for decades.

Experts are working to conserve and restore the Puget Sound’s declining kelp forests.

The Washington state Department of Natural Resources and the Squaxin Island Tribe will join forces to try to conserve the Squaxin Island Kelp Bed, the last major kelp bed in South Puget Sound.

Amid a sea of uncertainty regarding the health of floating bull kelp in the region, monitored beds in Skagit County seem to be doing all right.

Divers at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium are surveying kelp at two new sites in Tacoma this summer, helping with Puget Sound recovery efforts.

Across much of Puget Sound, they’re fighting to survive. According to the Puget Sound Kelp Conservation and Recovery Plan, bull kelp forests in South Puget Sound have declined by 62% since 1870.