The kelp, which lives offshore up to 30 meters in depth, also protects life living closer to shore. Kelp forest help defend intertidal 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.
Sea otters depend on kelp forests day and night.
They spend almost their entire lifecycle in the kelp forests, feeding on sea urchins and other crustaceans, and sleeping tied to kelp ropes for safety. The sea otter's favorite food, the sea urchin, abound in kelp forests grazing on kelp and other algae. In some areas where sea otters have been exterminated, sea urchin populations have exploded, decimating local kelp forests. During the 18th and 19th centuries, most of the sea otters in the Pacific Northwest were eliminated by unscrupulous hunting for their fur. All were gone from Olympic's coastline, until the late 1960's when they were reintroduced.