Island of Ideas | Reef Futures

More than 95 per cent of Tasmania’s giant kelp forests have disappeared as warming waters and invasive sea urchins transform reef ecosystems along our coastline.

Marine ecologist Professor Scott Ling has spent decades diving on Tasmania’s reefs to understand why productive ecosystems collapse and what it takes for them to recover. Restoring the giant kelp forests in Tasmania has become a key focus of his work in scaling-up solutions to repair reef ecosystems.

In this Island of Ideas keynote, Scott will take you inside one of Tasmania’s most ambitious marine restoration efforts. From reducing sea urchin numbers and rebuilding rock lobster populations, to ‘seaweeding’ competing algae and out-planting giant kelp, he will explore how scientists, industry, and communities are working together to help the giant kelp.

Can we safeguard remnant giant kelp forests and bring them back where they’ve been lost in recent decades? And what might their capacity for recovery teach us about resilience in a rapidly changing ocean?