00:02Linnea Bird has traveled all the way from California to help restore Tasmania's giant kelp forests.
00:10Being able to go across the world and see very similar ecosystems but also just different biodiversity has always really
00:19drawn me to Tasmania.
00:21She's one of six interns taking part in a new kelp restoration program at the Eagle Hawk Dive Center on
00:29the state's east coast.
00:30The loss of those kelp is a massive impact on our ecosystem and just people understand that they don't want
00:37to do something about it and that's great.
00:40Tasmania's giant kelp forests have been rapidly declining since the 1950s.
00:46The technique the interns are taught was developed by the University of Tasmania's Marine Science Institute.
00:54Kelp juveniles are attached to the base of already existing seaweed.
00:58We also do something called underwater gardening so where we're out planting the juvenile giant kelp we're cutting about a
01:05metre around of all of the other kelp that could out-compete the juveniles.
01:10The interns will complete more than a dozen dives over their four-week program bracing the icy waters of the
01:17Tasman Peninsula to help restore the kelp.
01:19Diving in Tasmania can be a bit challenging because of the cold water we need to use thick wetsuits and
01:26that change a little bit the buoyancy control, the technique.
01:30The water is freezing, I've never thought anything like it before.
01:33The organisers say they will run the program again next winter following the success of its first year.
01:40.
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