KelpConnect doesn't monitor kelp, fund restoration, or put divers in the water. Other people do that, and this platform runs on their data and their labor. This page says who they are.
“A successful restoration program must be grounded in self-sustaining economic models.”
Noyo Center for Marine Science, on why grant funding alone won't restore the kelp forest
Every input to a Certified Restorative assessment traces back to one of these. If you want to check our work, start here rather than with us.
Near-real-time satellite monitoring of California kelp canopy, built by The Nature Conservancy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, UCLA, and UC Santa Barbara, with Ocean Protection Council funding. Open to anyone.
Locality and restoration-zone alignment scoring
California's in-development statewide plan for kelp restoration and management, with an active community working group. The most current framework for what counts as a restoration priority area.
Restoration priority zones; harvest permitting context
Released the 2021 Kelp Action Plan, funds the statewide Kelp Recovery Research Program, and has committed to restoring 2,000 acres of degraded kelp forest by 2030.
The 2,000-acre commitment; removal program funding records
Co-administers the Kelp Recovery Research Program with OPC and CDFW, including work on land-based echinoculture — the science behind urchin ranching.
Roe yield and grow-out assumptions in the margin calculator
Restoration on this coast is done by a small number of organizations working with commercial and volunteer divers. Several are plausible suppliers on this platform; none has agreed to be.
Coordinates urchin removal on the Mendocino coast, runs public education programming, and is developing a regenerative aquaculture wet lab. Has argued publicly that restoration needs self-sustaining economic models rather than indefinite grant funding.
The argument this whole platform is built on
Runs the largest scuba-based citizen science monitoring program on the coast and led restoration at Noyo Bay and Albion Cove with CDFW, OPC, The Nature Conservancy, and Noyo Center. In the first month at Noyo Bay, 13 commercial divers cleared roughly six acres and landed 21,276 lb of purple urchin.
Urchin density monitoring protocols; restoration-contribution evidence
Coordinates urchin barren clearing in southern California with volunteer and commercial divers. Received up to $707,000 from OPC in March 2026 for Channel Islands kelp restoration. Linked here via NOAA's account of the work, as we haven't independently confirmed their current program page.
Southern California restoration site context
If you want to understand the kelp crisis rather than transact in it, these are better starting points than anything we've written.
An illustrated web project by artist Josie Iselin covering kelp species, regional stories, restoration strategies, and aquaculture. The most approachable introduction to why any of this matters.
Studies why kelp forests become urchin barrens and when they recover, including the role of urchin behavior and sea otter presence, with CDFW and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
The established sustainable seafood rating system, with a published, peer-reviewed scoring methodology. Certified Restorative is designed to complement it, not replace it — Seafood Watch scores harm avoidance, which is a different question from restoration contribution.
The benchmark our own methodology was built against
A searchable record of kelp restoration projects worldwide, including the Mendocino sites. Useful for seeing how California's situation compares to kelp loss elsewhere.
You do not need to be a diver, a buyer, or a supplier to be useful here.
Public programming, volunteer opportunities, and direct support for kelp restoration on the Mendocino coast.
Certified divers can join the kelp forest monitoring program. The data volunteers collect is part of what makes restoration measurable at all — including on this platform.