When director and wildlife cinematographer Ismaele Tortella moved from Italy to Norway, it was in pursuit of an encounter with a wolffish, an apex predator that lives in the kelp forests of the north. When he got there however, he found a problem: urchin barrens.

His documentary, The Stone Biter, tells the story of Tortella’s move to Northern Norway and his dive into the world of urchin removal and kelp restoration – all with the elusive wolffish in mind.

That documentary, with support from Ocean Green partner Rissa Citizen Science, is being shown at the Arctic University Museum of Norway in October. After the screening, which seeks to highlight how Northern Norway’s kelp forests have been replaced by urchin barrens – and what is being done to bring these essential habitats back to life – underwater cameraman Tortella will join Rissa CS director Delphin Ruché for a talk with the audience.

The Stone Biter really puts the spotlight on kelp, highlighting just how vital these beautiful forests are to Norway’s waters, says Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, chief impact officer at Ava Ocean and project lead for Ocean Green.

‘We talk so much about the urchin barrens and there’s so little kelp left in some places that you do need to bring the focus back to why we’re doing this – and that is to restore Northern Norway’s hugely important kelp forests,’ she says.

As well as showcasing the wonder of a returning kelp forest, Anastassiou points to the cumulative effect a documentary like this can have. It will also be aired for some 80 students at Kongsbakken videregående skole in October. ‘Ocean literacy is an important element in the Ocean Green project and, along with the hands-on citizen science work that Rissa CS does, documentaries like this really expand our reach, helping even more people understand their connection to the sea.’

A global challenge

The urchin-kelp problem that Northern Norway is grappling with is not unique. From California to New Zealand, along coasts around the world, overfishing of urchin predators has led to an abundance of urchins. These voracious creatures eat their way through once dense kelp forests – leaving barren seascapes in their wake – and this is not the only stressor threatening kelp forests, explains Aaron Eger, founder and programme director at the Kelp Forest Alliance (KFA).

‘Kelp faces two main stressors: kelp likes cold water so warming oceans is one problem – either a chronic, slower warming or acute warming, in the form of the sudden heatwave spikes that we’ve seen more often in recent years. Sometimes coupled with that is an over-abundance of sea urchins, which can be caused by the warming water or by a lack or urchin predators often due to overfishing.’

A loss of kelp can even change the way that urchins feed, continues Eger. ‘As they lose kelp, they go from a more passive feeding mode to a more active feeding mode, creating this negative spiral.’

Through the KFA, Eger and his team work towards a number of goals: the KFA connects interested parties involved in kelp research, protection and restoration – from small actors up to national level policy makers – with a goal of shared knowledge and an avoidance of repeated mistakes. It also lobbies on behalf of these underwater forests, working to keep kelp on the radar as much as possible. Eger talks about the alliance’s efforts to get recognition for the kelp problem and how it is working to encourage policymakers to incorporate kelp into their local, regional and national strategies.

At perhaps the most local level, this lobbying comes down to everyday perceptions: ‘many people don’t even know what kelp is. And if they do, they often have a negative perception because maybe it’s washed up on the beach or they touch it as they swim – it’s slimy and they’re grossed out. People don’t know how important kelp is in coastal food webs, local biodiversity, coastal economies.’

Local solutions

Documentaries like The Stone Biter help bring kelp into the spotlight, replacing negative perceptions through the awe and beauty that few get to experience without going into the water. Increasingly though, Ruché and Rissa CS are turning the abstract into something tangible for more and more people, through the citizen science work the NGO does on a regular basis. Taking volunteers into the water around Tromsø, the organisation already restored a very visible area in the city. ‘Because we purposely restored just one side of the jetty, and because of the location of the site – part of a new promenade being created by the city to help reconnect people with the water – people can see the difference that urchin removal makes on their daily walk,’ explains Ruché. ‘On one side it is still an urchin barren. On the other, there is this incredible kelp forest already thriving.’

Rissa CS recently began work at a new site in Telegrafbukta, which he hopes will expand the opportunities for urchin removal. As Rissa CS’s work has expanded, so too have the number of ‘Kelpers’ that come along to help out. The most recent urchin removal day brought in around 50 volunteers, says Ruché.

Although the objective at these events is urchin removal, he stresses the need to keep the project’s end goal in mind. ‘Kelp restoration is what we’re working towards, even though we spend so much time focused on urchin removal,’ he says. ‘This documentary really showcases kelp and the vital work these forests do as nurseries for diverse species, as carbon sinks and as natural coastal defence systems. It also shows people the beauty of these underwater rainforests.’

It also serves to expand Ocean Green’s literacy goals, he continues. ‘Most impressive to me so far has been the community that we’ve created,’ says Ruché. ‘It’s fantastic to see people come along – some know very little about urchins or kelp, many have never been in the water before. They leave the experience as part of our community and with a far better understanding of what’s happening below the water. This is the kind of ocean literacy we want to spread even further with The Stone Biter.’

The large-scale solution

Even with teams of up to 50 people or more going into the water to remove urchins, Northern Norway’s barrens remain huge. ‘Hand removal is a great showcase tool, with proven results, but Ocean Green is taking that further. We are using our technology to deliver the largest-scale urchin removal system to date,’ says Anastassiou. And, given the global nature of the urchin-kelp problem, she believes Ocean Green has potential to go far beyond the north.

‘The technology we’re using in Ocean Green is itself adapted from Ava Ocean’s unique gentle scallop fishing methods,’ she explains. ‘And we’re working hard to get an urchin harvester out that can remove these creatures at scale. This is essential if we’re to make any real headway against the many thousands of hectares of urchin barrens in northern Norway, though we also know the problem is about much more than simple urchin removal.

‘Our hope is that the Ocean Green solution could one day help others in their kelp restoration,’ she adds.