Kelp
Kelp on rocky beach in Freycinet, Tasmania
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Chromalveolata
Phylum:	Heterokontophyta
Class:	Phaeophyceae
Order:	Laminariales Migula, 1909[1]
Families
Akkesiphycaceae Alariaceae Chordaceae Costariaceae Laminariaceae Lessoniaceae Pseudochordaceae

Kelps are large seaweeds (algae) belonging to the brown algae (Phaeophyceae) in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera.^{[citation needed]}

Kelps grow in underwater "forests" (kelp forests) in shallow oceans. The organisms require nutrient-rich water with temperatures between 6 and 14 °C (43 and 57 °F). They are known for their high growth rate — the genera Macrocystis and Nereocystis can grow as fast as half a metre a day, ultimately reaching 30 to 80 metres (100 to 260 ft).^[2]

Through the 19th century, the word "kelp" was closely associated with seaweeds that could be burned to obtain soda ash (primarily sodium carbonate). The seaweeds used included species from both the orders Laminariales and Fucales. The word "kelp" was also used directly to refer to these processed ashes.^[3]

Morphology[link]

A sample portion of a typical giant kelp thallus.

In most kelp, the thallus (or body) consists of flat or leaf-like structures known as blades. Blades originate from elongated stem-like structures, the stipes. The holdfast, a root-like structure, anchors the kelp to the substrate of the ocean. Gas-filled bladders (pneumatocysts) form at the base of blades of American species, such as Nereocystis lueteana (Mert. & Post & Rupr.)^[2] and keep the kelp blades close to the surface, holding up the blades by the gas they contain.

Growth and reproduction[link]

Growth occurs at the base of the meristem, where the blades and stipe meet. Growth may be limited by grazing. Sea urchins, for example, can reduce entire areas to urchin barrens. The kelp life cycle involves a diploid sporophyte and haploid gametophyte stage. The haploid phase begins when the mature organism releases many spores, which then germinate to become male or female gametophytes. Sexual reproduction then results in the beginning of the diploid sporophyte stage, which will develop into a mature individual.

The parenchymatous thalli are generally covered with a mucilage layer, rather than cuticle.^[4]:226

Commercial uses[link]

Alaskan beach kelp

Giant kelp can be harvested fairly easily because of its surface canopy and growth habit of staying in deeper water.

Bongo kelp ash is rich in iodine and alkali. In great amount, kelp ash can be used in soap and glass production. Until the Leblanc process was commercialized in the early 19th century, burning of kelp in Scotland was one of the principal industrial sources of soda ash (predominantly sodium carbonate).^[5] Alginate, a kelp-derived carbohydrate, is used to thicken products such as ice cream, jelly, salad dressing, and toothpaste, as well as an ingredient in exotic dog food and in manufactured goods^{[citation needed]}. Alginate powder is also used frequently in general dentistry and orthodontics for making impressions of the upper and lower arches. These impressions are subsequently poured up in stone and the stone models are used in diagnosis and treatment ^[6]

Kelp is also used frequently in seaweed fertilizer, especially in the Channel Islands, where it is known as vraic.

Kombu (昆布 in Japanese, and 海带 in Chinese, Saccharina japonica and others), several Pacific species of kelp, is a very important ingredient in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cuisines. Kombu is used to flavor broths and stews (especially dashi), as a savory garnish (tororo konbu) for rice and other dishes, as a vegetable, and a primary ingredient in popular snacks (such as tsukudani). Transparent sheets of kelp (oboro konbu) are used as an edible decorative wrapping for rice and other foods.^[7]

Kombu can be used to soften beans during cooking, and to help convert indigestible sugars and thus reduce flatulence.^[8]

Because of its high concentration of iodine, brown kelp (Laminaria) has been used to treat goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland caused by a lack of iodine, since medieval times.^[9]

In 2010 a group of researchers in the University of Newcastle found that a fibrous material called alginate in sea kelp was better at preventing fat absorption than most over-the-counter slimming treatments in laboratory trials. As a food additive it may be used to reduce fat absorption and thus obesity.^[10]

As a possible renewable energy source[link]

See also: Biomass energy, Algae fuel

Kelp has a high rate of growth and its decay is quite efficient in yielding methane, as well as sugars that can be converted to ethanol. It has been proposed that large open-ocean kelp farms could serve as a source of renewable energy.^[11] Unlike some biofuels such as corn ethanol, kelp energy avoids "food vs fuel" issues and does not require irrigation.

Kelp in history and culture[link]

During the Highland Clearances, many Scottish Highlanders were moved off their crofts, and went to industries such as fishing and kelping (producing soda ash from the ashes of kelp). At least until the 1820s, when there were steep falls in the price of kelp, landlords wanted to create pools of cheap or virtually free labour, supplied by families subsisting in new crofting townships. Kelp collection and processing was a very profitable way of using this labour, and landlords petitioned successfully for legislation designed to stop emigration. But the economic collapse of the kelp industry in northern Scotland led to further emigration, especially to North America.

Natives of the Falkland Islands are sometimes nicknamed "Kelpers".^[12][13] The name is primarily applied by outsiders rather than the natives themselves.

In Chinese slang, "kelp" (simplified Chinese: 海带; traditional Chinese: 海帶; pinyin: hǎi dài), is used to describe an unemployed returnee. It has negative overtones, implying the person is drifting aimlessly, and is also a homophonic expression (Chinese: 海待; pinyin: hǎidài, literally "sea waiting"). This expression is contrasted with the employed returnee, having a dynamic ability to travel across the ocean: the "sea turtle" (simplified Chinese: 海龟; traditional Chinese: 海龜; pinyin: hǎi gūi).

Conservation[link]

Overfishing nearshore ecosystems leads to the degradation of kelp forests. Herbivores are released from their usual population regulation, leading to over-grazing of kelp and other algae. This can quickly result in barren landscapes where only a small number of species can thrive.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery[link]

• 

  Giant kelp in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

• 

  Kelp

• 

  Scuba diver in kelp forest

• 

  Blue Rockfish in kelp forest

• 

  Anemone and seastar in kelp forest

• 

  An underwater shot of a Kelp forest.

• 

  A Kelp forest.

• 

  A fish swimming in a Kelp Forest as seen at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

• 

  A view of the Kelp Forest Exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium from the upstairs level.

Commercial kelp production in China[link]

Laminaria japonica, the important commercial seaweed, was first introduced into China in the late 1920s from Hokkaido, Japan. Commercial production of kelp harvested from its natural habitat took place in Japan for over a century. Yet mariculture of this algae on a very large commercial scale was realized in China only in the 1950s. Between the 1950s and the 1980s kelp production in China increased from about 60 to over 250,000 dry weight metric tons annually, making China the largest producer of Laminaria.

Prominent species[link]

• Bull-head kelp, Nereocystis luetkeana, a northwestern American species. Used by coastal indigenous peoples to create fishing nets.
• Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, the largest seaweed. Found in the Pacific coast of North America and South America.
• Kombu, Laminaria japonica and others, several edible species of kelp found in Japan.

Species of Laminaria in the British Isles;

• Laminaria digitata (Hudson) J.V. Lamouroux (Oarweed; Tangle)
• Laminaria hyperborea (Gunnerus) Foslie (Curvie)
• Laminaria ochroleuca Bachelot de la Pylaie
• Laminaria saccharina (Linnaeus) J.V.Lamouroux (sea belt; sugar kelp; sugarwack)

Species of Laminaria worldwide, listing of species at AlgaeBase:^[14]

• Laminaria agardhii (NE. America)
• Laminaria angustata (Japan)
• Laminaria bongardina Postels et Ruprecht (Bering Sea to California)
• Laminaria cuneifolia (NE. America)
• Laminaria dentigera Klellm. (California - America)
• Laminaria digitata (NE. America)
• Laminaria ephemera Setchell (Sitka, Alaska, to Monterey County, California - America)
• Laminaria farlowii Setchell (Santa Cruz, California, to Baja California - America)
• Laminaria groenlandica (NE. America)
• Laminaria japonica (Japan), synonym of Saccharina japonica
• Laminaria longicruris (NE. America)
• Laminaria nigripes (NE. America)
• Laminaria ontermedia (NE. America)
• Laminaria pallida Greville ex J. Agardh (South Africa)
• Laminaria platymeris (NE. America)
• Laminaria saccharina (Linnaeus) Lamouroux (Aleutian Islands, Alaska to southern California America)
• Laminaria setchellii Silva (Aleutian Islands, Alaska to Baja California America)
• Laminaria sinclairii (Harvey ex Hooker f. ex Harvey) Farlow, Anderson et Eaton (Hope Island, British Columbia to Los Angeles, California - America)
• Laminaria solidungula (NE. America)
• Laminaria stenophylla (NE. America)

Other species in the Laminariales that may be considered as kelp

• Alaria marginata Post. & Rupr. (Alaska and California - America
• Costaria costata (C.Ag.) Saunders Japan; Alaska, California - America)
• Durvillea antarctica (New Zealand, South America, and Australia)
• Durvillea willana (New Zealand)
• Durvillaea potatorum (Labillardière) Areschoug (Tasmania; Australia)
• Ecklonia brevipes J. Agardh (Australia; New Zealand)
• Ecklonia maxima (Osbeck) Papenfuss (South Africa)
• Ecklonia radiata (C.Agardh) J. Agardh (Australia; Tasmania; New Zealand; South Africa)
• Eisena arborea Aresch. (Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Montrey, Santa Catalina Island, California - America)
• Egregia menziesii (Turn.) Aresch.
• Hedophyllum sessile (C.Ag.) Setch (Alaska, California - America)
• Macrocystis angustifolia Bory (Australia; Tasmania and South Africa)
• Pleurophycus gardneri Setch. & Saund. (Alaska, California - America)
• Pterygophora californica Rupr. (Vancouver Island, British Columbia to Bahia del Ropsario, Baja California and California - America)
• Saccharina japonica (Japan)

Interactions[link]

Some animals are named after the kelp, either because they inhabit the same habitat as kelp or because they feed on kelp. These include:

• Northern kelp crab (Pugettia producta) and graceful kelp crab (Pugettia gracilis), Pacific coast of North America.
• Kelpfish (blenny) (e.g., Heterosticbus rostratus, genus Gibbonsia), Pacific coast of North America.
• Kelp goose (kelp hen) (Chloephaga hybrida), South America and the Falkland Islands
• Kelp pigeon (sheathbill) (Chionis alba and Chionis minor), Antarctic

See also[link]

• Kelp forest
• Bladder wrack
• Durvillea
• Wrack zone

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Druehl, L.D. 1988. Cultivated edible kelp. in Algae and Human Affairs. Lembi, C.A. and Waaland, J.R. (Editors) 1988.ISBN 0 521 32115 8.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Laminariales

Wikispecies has information related to: Laminariales

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

Jean-Michel Cousteau
Cousteau (right) with wife Nancy Marr, December 2007
Born	1938

Jean-Michel Cousteau (born 1938) is a French explorer, environmentalist, educator, and film producer. The first son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, he is the father of Fabien Cousteau and Celine Cousteau.

Biography[link]

Cousteau is the son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Simone Melchior. Cousteau first dived with an aqua-lung in 1945 when he was 7 years old. Although he went to school to study architecture,^[1] he became part of his father's Cousteau Society, serving for twenty years as executive vice president before striking out on his own in 1993 to produce environmental films.^[2][3][4] Cousteau and his father had disagreed about the management and policies of the Society.^[5]

After Cousteau opened a resort on a Fiji Island utilizing the family name, Jacques-Yves Cousteau filed a lawsuit against him in 1995.^[4] In June 1996, a court signed an injunction requiring him to add, with equal prominence in placement, his first name to the hotel.^[3] Jean-Michel then founded the Ocean Futures Society in 1999, a marine conservation and education organization which fosters a conservation ethic, conducts research, and develops marine education programs. In 2003, Francesca Sorrenti and Marisha Shibuya of the SKe GROUP project, in partnership with Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society, collaborated to produce Water Culture, a Trolley Books publication featuring a wide variety of photographer's water related imagery and interviews with prominent world personalities on the problems facing our water supply.^[6] Cousteau is also Chairman of Green Cross France.

Jean-Michel Cousteau is also working on a documentary highlighting the epic and disastrous 2010 Gulf Oil Spill in which 11 workers were killed during an explosion of the Deepwater Rig 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

Film production and appearances[link]

He has produced over 70 films.^[7]

He appeared on a documentary-type special feature on the DVD version of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in which he and Stephen Hillenburg talk about all of the real-life counterparts to the sea creatures seen in the cartoon series and the movie and even some that are not in the movie. He did a similar feature for the DVD of the Disney/Pixar movie Finding Nemo.

Jean-Michel Cousteau made a new documentary series Ocean Adventures^[8] released in 2006.

In Disney's DVD release of the Pixar film Finding Nemo, Cousteau makes an appearance interacting with the characters from the film, Marlin, Nemo and Dory, and touting the need for better pollution control, showing videos of sick coral reefs.

He also appears in the IMAX documentary film Coral Reef Adventure.

Ocean Futures Society, KQED and PBS are continuing production on the Ocean Adventures series for 2007 and 2008. In October 2006, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and an expedition team that includes his son Fabien and daughter Céline, began filming along the Amazon River. Twenty years ago scientists predicted devastation and irreversible environmental damage here, and 25 years ago Jean-Michel Cousteau and his legendary father traveled with their teams the entire length of the Amazon to document, learn, and see for themselves.

In 2006, Cousteau's documentary Voyage to Kure inspired then United States President George W. Bush to protect the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, making it — with its 140,000 square miles (360,000 km²) of ocean waters, islands and atolls — one of the largest Marine Protected Areas in the world.^[9][10]

Filmography[link]

Unless noted otherwise, all are appearances as himself.

• The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (1968) associate producer
  • "Search in the Deep"
  • "Savage Worlds of the Coral Jungle"
• The Alan Thicke Show (17 October 1980)
• Les Pièges de la mer aka Cries from the Deep (1982) delegate producer
• Cousteau: Alaska: Outrage at Valdez (1989) also executive producer & director
• Stories of the Sea (1996)
• Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau (2003) - included on Disc 2 of the Finding Nemo DVD.
• MacGillivray Freeman's Coral Reef Adventure (2003)
• Hollywood's Magical Island: Catalina (2003) also thanked by the Ocean Futures Society
• Deadly Sounds in the Silent World (2003)
• Sharks 3D (2004) presenter
• Tout le monde en parle (10 April 2004)
• The 100 Greatest Family Films (2005)/ films about ocean
• Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures (2006—) also executive producer[1]
  • "America's Underwater Treasures" (two parts, 20 & 27 September 2006) Robert Redford
  • "Sharks at Risk" (12 July 2006) narrated by Pierce Brosnan
  • "The Gray Whale Obstacle Course" (19 July 2006) narrated by Pierce Brosnan
  • "Voyage to Kure" (two parts, 5 & 12 April 2006) narrated by Pierce Brosnan (ASIN B000CSUNL6)
  • "Return to the Amazon" (two parts, 2 & 9 April 2008) narrated by Delroy Lindo
  • "Sea Ghosts" (8 April 2009) narrated by Anne Heche
  • "Call of the Killer Whale" (22 April 2009) narrated by Chris Noth; two parts, focusing on New Zealand, reintroducing Keiko of Free Willy fame to the wild, and Norway[2]
• Slater Meets Her Hero Jean-Micheal Cousteau (2006)
• Voxtours: "Karibische Jungferninseln - Die British Virgin Islands" (19 August 2006)
• Dolphins and Whales 3D: Tribes of the Ocean (2008) presenter
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (1 April 2008, 31 July 2008, 25 June 2010, 11 February 2011 and 4 August 2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jean-Michel Cousteau at the Internet Movie Database
• Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures at PBS.org
• Ocean Futures
• Public School Insights' interview with Jean-Michel Cousteau Posted April 21, 2009
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0799879/ Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures (TV Series 2006)