These are the unseen forests of the Olympic coastline. As with any forest, its canopy is a protective shelter for many types of life. Many species of fish live beneath the blades along with plankton, tiny arthropods, sea urchins, bat and brittle stars, sponges, and many other organisms. Surf Scoters can be found foraging in the kelp forest, frequently diving in unison in search of blue mussels and other small creatures living amongst the breaking waves. The kelp, which grows offshore up to 30 meters in depth, also protects life closer to shore.
Kelp forests help defend inter-tidal communities from the pounding surf.
In doing so, some kelp is lost. Great tangled wads of kelp can be found on the beach that were torn from their beds and washed to shore. Examine these piles and you will find the kelp's holdfast still gripping a rock which was loosened by the force of the ocean. Glacial ice molded the Olympic natural communities. Between 100,000 and 10,000 years before present, the Wisconsin ice age cooled the earth's climate creating several glaciations that scoured the Olympic mountain valleys and displaced lowland plant communities.