Warming waters are placing New Zealand’s kelp forests in peril - posing troubling implications for the plethora of ocean species that rely on them.
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The Department of Conservation is looking at the decline of 'old growth' kelp beds along the Coast Road and the effects of the marine heatwave on its five marine reserves on the West Coast.
Repeated marine heatwaves have seen most 'old growth' kelp beds along the Coast Road between Greymouth and Westport disappear or dwindle in the past 20 years.