Kelp is often found in great forests in the sea. Other forms of kelp are smaller and and don’t grow in large forests. The Pacific kinds of kelp often grow to be more than a hundred feet long. The plant is held to the bottom by thing called a “holdfast.” The holdfast anchor’s the plant to cobbles, large rocks, and debris in sandy bottoms. It looks like a root but its not. The holdfast can’t take in  nutrients like true roots do. It serves only to keep the kelp from breaking away during storms, tides, and normal wave action. Nutrients are absorbed through most of the kelp’s surface area.

The kelp plant grows fast in forests,  as much as one foot per day. The growing tip of a kelp plant is called frond. When the frond reaches the surface the growth rate slows down and soon forms its last blade called “terminal blade.”

Some marine biologists think that kelp forests provide habitat for as many different type of wildlife as does a tropical rain forest on land. Both kelp forests and rain forests have hundreds of different types of plants, animals and insects living in them.   Worms, snails, crustaceans, and mollusks also live in the kelp forest.

Bottom fish live at the base of a kelp forest. Lots of the fish and other animals that live in kelp beds attract predators. Sharks, seals, and sea otters find these forests to be great hunting areas. Kelp is commercially harvested for lots of products that are used by people.   Kelp has a chemical called algin. Algin is used as a thickener, stabilizer, and emulsifier. Thinkeners increase a substances density by making the substance less watery. Stabilizers prevent foods from getting rotten and emulsifiers help ingredients from separating.  Algin from kelp is used in ice cream and lots of other dairy products as well as in many kinds of processed foods, beverages, and medicines. Algin is also used for making paper, cometics, ceramics, paint, and insecticides.