We saw lots of these on the beach…What are they?
Thank you to John Brofy, our former neighbor, for answering the mystery question.
This is of the brown algae of the kelp family. What you see on the beach is one of the blades which has broken off of the main plant–the plants grow from attachments on the sea floor and can be up to about 30 feet long. The little bulbs at the bottom of the blades are gas-filled so that the plants float upright in tne water. This species–Macrocystis integrifolia–ranges from British Columbia on the north to well down into California. Sea otters and grey whales and lots of other
critters love to hang around in kelp beds.