There is something truly surreal about Scuba Diving in a giant Kelp Forests, and any diver who has experienced diving in this environment will tell you, that there is nothing else comparable to navigating your way through giant strands of giant kelp through filtered streaming sunlight and observing these unique ecosystems up-close. Kelp forests grow predominantly on the Pacific Coast, around California, Alaska, Tasmania, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia.
Kelp is an aquatic plant that has root like structures at its base known as “holdfasts” and a main stem that streams upward towards the light at the surface where it forms a canopy like a tree.
Tips for diving amongst forests of kelp are a combination of making the dive easier, finding your way around as well as maintaining the ecosystem and preventing damage to the kelp.
Streamline your scuba diving equipment to avoid snags
When you are preparing for your Kelp Dive, potential exists for divers to become entangled in kelp, so make sure you take extra care to prevent having anything on you that could snag on the kelp. Make sure that all straps are adjusted, and taped or tucked. Weight belts should not have lose ends dangling. Keep all gauges clipped on to your BCD, and don’t wear your dive knife strapped to your leg, try keeping it in your BCD, or attached to it.
Do not step off the dive boat into a Kelp Canopy
While planning your descent from the dive boat, make sure you enter the water in a clearing free of the Kelp canopy, or at the fringes of the forest. Jumping into the canopy can entangle you in an instant. Judging clearings in a kelp forest can be deceptively difficult to do so as there may appear to be an area void of kelp on the surface, but has dense stalks growing just below the surface, making choosing an entry location tricky.
Plan your dive taking accurate compass readings and bearings before descent.
Getting lost in a kelp forest is relatively easy to do. Divers should get a good idea about the layout of the area before the dive, taking underwater compass readings to ensure you locate the dive boat on your way back.
Use your hands to push away the kelp and Descend feet first
While entering the water, deflate your BCD completely and spin around slowly, gently pushing away the kelp from you while descending feet first straight downward.
The forest is almost always thinnest near the bottom
When diving in a Kelp forest, descend straight to the bottom where the kelp is at its thinnest point and navigating the forest becomes much easier. Take a bearing once you reach the sea bed, or leave a marker to allow you to find your way back to the dive boat.
Follow Natural Clearings between each Kelp Stalk
The easiest way to explore a kelp forest is to follow the natural clearings between the kelp and make your way through. Ensure that you pick a wide enough opening to swim through to avoid getting tangled. If the opening looks too small to get through, and you cannot see the path ahead, it probably isn’t advisable to swim through it, as it is difficult to back out while diving.
