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The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest
A mesmerizing tour of our underwater forests and what they can teach us.
Offshore and out of sight to most beachgoers on the North Pacific coast is a wondrous the bull kelp forest. Each year, tiny bull kelp saplings explode into sixty-foot "redwoods," until winter storms tear them loose and fling great tangles of wrack on the shore. While they flourish, these underwater forests harbor abalone, salmon, and rockfish, and they entreat cormorants and murrelets to hunt among their thrumming canopies. Meanwhile, fluffy-furred otters and pizza-sized sea stars gorge on spiny urchins who, if left to run rampant, will devour a kelp bed down to barren wasteland. In The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest, Josie Iselin profiles thirteen species—with stylish illustrations from Ellen Litwiller—to be our ambassadors to this undersung world. She explores how their interspecies dramas play out in eight coastal regions, from Alaska to central California, exploring instances of interdependent, compromised, and resilient coastal ecosystems. An array of sea creatures feature in these pages, as well as shorebirds that connect land and sea. Land-dwelling humans are also deeply implicated in this saga—by turns beneficiaries, agents of harm, and stewards of these subtidal sanctuaries.
Offshore and out of sight to most beachgoers on the North Pacific coast is a wondrous the bull kelp forest. Each year, tiny bull kelp saplings explode into sixty-foot "redwoods," until winter storms tear them loose and fling great tangles of wrack on the shore. While they flourish, these underwater forests harbor abalone, salmon, and rockfish, and they entreat cormorants and murrelets to hunt among their thrumming canopies. Meanwhile, fluffy-furred otters and pizza-sized sea stars gorge on spiny urchins who, if left to run rampant, will devour a kelp bed down to barren wasteland. In The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest, Josie Iselin profiles thirteen species—with stylish illustrations from Ellen Litwiller—to be our ambassadors to this undersung world. She explores how their interspecies dramas play out in eight coastal regions, from Alaska to central California, exploring instances of interdependent, compromised, and resilient coastal ecosystems. An array of sea creatures feature in these pages, as well as shorebirds that connect land and sea. Land-dwelling humans are also deeply implicated in this saga—by turns beneficiaries, agents of harm, and stewards of these subtidal sanctuaries.
- GenresNature
136 pages, Hardcover
Published March 17, 2026
About the author
Josie Iselin
18 books6 followersJosie Iselin is the photographer, author and designer of many books, with new projects always in development in her San Francisco studio, Loving Blind Productions. Her recent books focus on the spectacular forms of seaweed we find at the beach. Her newest book, The Curious World of Seaweed, features sixteen visually rich narratives of our iconic West Coast seaweeds and kelps. It is due out by Heyday in August 2019.
Josie's mission is to produce well-researched and well-designed books that combine art and science, leaving the reader with new information about, and an appreciation for, the world around them. Her writing and art focused on seaweeds, kelp and sea otter put her on the forefront of ocean activism, presenting and working with scientists and groups working to preserve the kelp forests of our Pacific Coast.
Josie holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and an MFA from San Francisco State University. For over twenty years Josie has used her flatbed scanner and computer exclusively for generating imagery. She is still captivated by the fluidity with which this technique allows her to render and design with three-dimensional objects. As a fine artist, Josie exhibits large-scale prints at select galleries, museums, hospitals and other public spaces. She has designed a line of luxury scarves and shower curtains. Synthesizing the scientific stories of our coast is her overriding passion, bringing thoughtfulness and stewardship to this extraordinary place of discovery. Visit her website at josieiselin.com.
Josie's mission is to produce well-researched and well-designed books that combine art and science, leaving the reader with new information about, and an appreciation for, the world around them. Her writing and art focused on seaweeds, kelp and sea otter put her on the forefront of ocean activism, presenting and working with scientists and groups working to preserve the kelp forests of our Pacific Coast.
Josie holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and an MFA from San Francisco State University. For over twenty years Josie has used her flatbed scanner and computer exclusively for generating imagery. She is still captivated by the fluidity with which this technique allows her to render and design with three-dimensional objects. As a fine artist, Josie exhibits large-scale prints at select galleries, museums, hospitals and other public spaces. She has designed a line of luxury scarves and shower curtains. Synthesizing the scientific stories of our coast is her overriding passion, bringing thoughtfulness and stewardship to this extraordinary place of discovery. Visit her website at josieiselin.com.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Want to Read
August 21, 2026Can't wait! I love her stuff.
May 31, 2026
Gorgeously illustrated, quick reading, and up to date (published 2026) introduction to the bull kelp forest, author Josie Iselin and artist Ellen Litwiller profiling thirteen species associated with this habitat and then discussing eight coastal regions where it is found (from Central California to Alaska). The book is an outgrowth of an ocean literacy campaign and a web-based book.
After an introduction and a chapter on the bull kelp community, in beautiful illustrations and several pages of text each, we meet bull kelp (can grow 6-10 inches a day, up to 60 feet, but is an annual, living at most eighteen months), purple sea urchins (one of three species of the forest, if unchecked can turn a kelp forest into an urchin barren), sea otters (the largest member of the weasel family but the smallest marine mammal), sunflower sea star (the largest sea star of the forest, important in keeping urchins in check but devasted in 2014 by Sea Star Wasting Disease), red abalone (the largest and has the broadest range of the seven species of the region, all heavily overfished), rockfish (genus Sebastes, seventy species along the Pacific coast, some species can live up to 200 years), giant kelp (can reach 100 feet high in a year, is a perennial), woody kelp (an important understory seaweed of the bull kelp forest, has growth rings in its woody stipe like a tree and live up to 25 years), snowy plover (“an ephemeral puff of a shorebird” that unlike other local shorebirds, is not migratory), pelagic cormorant (one of three Pacific coast species, its range “closely mimics the range of the bull kelp itself”), marbled murrelet (a stocky seabird that is “the most literal connector of the forest below and the forests above” as it nests in old-growth trees of coastal forests), pink salmon (one of five species of Pacific salmon and the most abundant species), and humans.
The eight regions get a bathymetric chart and a page of text, profiling areas like the Central California Coast/Monterey and the Oregon Coast, noting if bull kelp, purple sea urchins, southern sea stars, and southern sea otters are present or not.
For further reading, I highly recommend _Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp_ by David Helvarg and _Rare Bird: Pursuing the Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet_ by Maria Mudd Ruth.
After an introduction and a chapter on the bull kelp community, in beautiful illustrations and several pages of text each, we meet bull kelp (can grow 6-10 inches a day, up to 60 feet, but is an annual, living at most eighteen months), purple sea urchins (one of three species of the forest, if unchecked can turn a kelp forest into an urchin barren), sea otters (the largest member of the weasel family but the smallest marine mammal), sunflower sea star (the largest sea star of the forest, important in keeping urchins in check but devasted in 2014 by Sea Star Wasting Disease), red abalone (the largest and has the broadest range of the seven species of the region, all heavily overfished), rockfish (genus Sebastes, seventy species along the Pacific coast, some species can live up to 200 years), giant kelp (can reach 100 feet high in a year, is a perennial), woody kelp (an important understory seaweed of the bull kelp forest, has growth rings in its woody stipe like a tree and live up to 25 years), snowy plover (“an ephemeral puff of a shorebird” that unlike other local shorebirds, is not migratory), pelagic cormorant (one of three Pacific coast species, its range “closely mimics the range of the bull kelp itself”), marbled murrelet (a stocky seabird that is “the most literal connector of the forest below and the forests above” as it nests in old-growth trees of coastal forests), pink salmon (one of five species of Pacific salmon and the most abundant species), and humans.
The eight regions get a bathymetric chart and a page of text, profiling areas like the Central California Coast/Monterey and the Oregon Coast, noting if bull kelp, purple sea urchins, southern sea stars, and southern sea otters are present or not.
For further reading, I highly recommend _Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp_ by David Helvarg and _Rare Bird: Pursuing the Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet_ by Maria Mudd Ruth.
Review of advance copy
I got this book at a local bookstore near Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I found this girl on Instagram who talks about the intertidal zone along the California coast, and I actually do not know much about this. I am embarassed that I know so little about the ecologies of places that I stay, especially when wildlife is kinda my thing. For SF especially, I believe this place is a magical wonderland when it comes to aquatic biodiversity accessibility. Honestly, I swear there is pixie dust floating around whenever I am along the coastline.
Anyways, The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest therefore comes at the most opportune time. I could learn about ecosystems I so desire in an accessible way, right in the natural environment at Ocean Beach.
While these simpler explanatory nature books are usually not my cup of tea, this one is done exceptionally well. The publishing is high quality (and the paper smells SOOOO good), and the illustrations make each page turn a pleasant experience for viewing and reading.
Anyways, The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest therefore comes at the most opportune time. I could learn about ecosystems I so desire in an accessible way, right in the natural environment at Ocean Beach.
While these simpler explanatory nature books are usually not my cup of tea, this one is done exceptionally well. The publishing is high quality (and the paper smells SOOOO good), and the illustrations make each page turn a pleasant experience for viewing and reading.
July 8, 2026
I loved the art and appreciated meeting some of the main characters and locales of the kelp forests along our eastern Pacific Coast. I had no idea there had been such a collapse since when I got my scuba license over a decade ago, since I haven't been able to dive since, but it's harrowing. Reading this short book has made me think differently of those piles of tangled kelp that wash ashore.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews