Bull Kelp

Until the late 1980s, there was little targeted harvest of bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) in California, except as a small component of the localized edible seaweed industry. In central California, Nereocystis and Macrocystis often form mixed beds and it is likely bull kelp would have been incidentally taken during harvest of those beds, but not recorded separately on harvest records. Department records indicate about 19 tons of kelp, probably a mixture of Macrocystis and Nereocystis, were harvested from what is presently bed 302 off the Bodega Bay–Tomales Bay area between 1993 and 1999. All of this kelp was used by local abalone culturists. Other uses of bull kelp include pickling the stipe and marketing it as a specialty food product, and using the dried parts for arts and crafts. In southern Oregon, bull kelp was harvested from Orford Reef in the mid-1990s as an ingredient in liquid fertilizer. The Oregon Division of State Lands has since discontinued permitting that harvest