April 2022

First results

The spore bag technique did not work

In April we went to check the results of our kelp restoration trial in Cascais. Unfortunately, we did not find any kelp large enough that it could be identified which led us to conclude that the technique doesn't work well in this area. Most likely this is due to the turf algae that are covering the rock surface in these degraded seascapes which makes it hard for the kelp to attach. We did scrape off as much of this turf as we could before deploying the spore bags but it is likely that turf grew so fast that the kelp was outcompeted. Now we will make sure we share the lesson with others because negative results are valuable should be used for everyone to learn. That's not all though, we are now focusing on a new and very promising kelp restoration technique and we are building a kelp nursery. In this video, you can learn all about the trial results and our next big step.