Interesting article, long though. Key facts toward the end:
Aerial surveys of the coastline from San Francisco to the Oregon border show that kelp forests now cover 93 percent less surface area than in past peak years such as 2008 and 1989 …
kelp die-offs usually occur on a relatively small scale, in isolated areas or in more of a patchwork, Catton said. “They’re not hundreds of miles of coastline …
the species is built to recover, producing billions of spores that can persist in the ocean for some period of time before reproduction …
Exactly how long those seeds remain viable is unclear, however, and recolonization of such a vast area could be very slow
