{"id":75,"date":"2019-03-12T23:10:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T23:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/n3-bullkelp\/"},"modified":"2020-12-08T20:53:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T20:53:27","slug":"n3-bullkelp","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/n3-bullkelp\/","title":{"rendered":"Bull Kelp"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n


\nby Sam Weinstock<\/font><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n

Bull
\nKelp<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Bull kelp is a fascinating giant
\nbrown colored alga. It lives in the sea and if there is enough wave action
\nit can grow up to 3 feet in a day. Typically bull kelp grows up to about
\n115 feet in length, but they have the potential to grow up to about 300
\nfeet. Like other algae, bull kelp converts energy from sunlight and takes
\nits nutrients from the surrounding water. The range where they live on the
\nPacific coast is from Alaska to southern California. The best known species
\nis the giant kelp, and it is in the family known as Lessoniacea.<\/font><\/p>\n

One thing that people have found
\nis that bull kelp is a great source of algin, a natural thickener used in
\npaint, beer, ice cream, etc. People harvest kelp for these products, but
\nof course they have to be careful and limit their harvesting so that they
\ndon’t damage the kelp ecosystem. Another place where the kelp proved useful
\nwas with the Indians. They discovered that the bulb of the kelp was hollow
\nand used it for carrying water, then they dried the stems over a fire and
\nused them for fishing line. Later the pioneers found that it tasted good
\nand started to pickle it; it is still used today for this purpose. The nutritional
\nvalue of kelp is high. It is high in protein, iron and calcium.<\/font><\/p>\n

Sea otters use bull kelp to
\nanchor themselves and the blades of it have been found to provide a good
\nhard surface for mussels and Bryozoans to attach to. While snails, crabs,
\nshrimp, starfish, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, sea squirts
\nand many other animals use it as shelter, Also urchins, chitons, and limpets
\nall eat bull kelp.

\n<\/font><\/p>\n

The bulbous float at the end
\nis filled with gas containing carbon monoxide. Rafts of beached kelp help
\nreduce beach erosion. Kelp forests help soften the force of waves. Bull
\nkelp has three different parts: the bulb, the stipe, and the holdfast.<\/font><\/p>\n

Apart from using kelp for factory-made
\nproducts, people have also found kelp as a source of entertainment. Some
\nof my fellow classmates have found playing kelp like a trumpet, quite a
\nblast. Also, my aunt takes bull kelp, dries it and uses it like shaker.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sam Weinstock Bull Kelp Bull kelp is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9109,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_8.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9110,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75\/revisions\/9110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}