The Pacific Canada Pavilion living exhibit is a slice of a kelp bed, which is only one of many different habitats found in the Strait of Georgia. Kelp beds are one the richest habitats in the Strait because they provide food and shelter for a variety of animals. Kelp attracts many animals for a variety of reasons. In the kelp beds, plants, fishes and invertebrates gather and interact with one another, creating the kelp bed community.
Rocks give kelp a place to attach their holdfasts.
The kelp canopy can sometimes block 90 percent of the sunlight from above, and many kelps are seasonal, growing quickly when there's plenty of summer sunlight. There is often some sort of reproductive activity in a kelp bed, from sea stars producing large amounts of eggs and sperm to rockfishes giving birth to live young. Kelp beds are often the site of fierce competition, as various animals compete for the limited resources of food or space. Kelp greenlings and lingcod can be seen establishing and maintaining their territories near the kelp. They will chase away intruders and flare their fins at fishes that get too close.