Kelp Forest Nursery

Bull kelp plays a really important role providing shelter and habitat for juvenile fish, like this school of juvenile rockfish. This was taken in a sheltered bay in Browning Passage, Port Hardy, part of a Rockfish Conservation Area. I have not seen large schools of rockfish anywere around Vancouver Island except for in Browning Passage - which is both a cause of sadness, because so many populations have been decimated, and a cause of hope, because it shows that they can recover if we protect them and give them space.