Over 97 percent of kelp forest stalks have disappeared in the last twenty years along the east coast of Tasmania. A combination of many factors, including wind and currents, has led to the decline. The Wild Australia video investigates the decline.

Marine biologist Mick Baron states: “Thirty years ago, all up the east coast of Tas­mania, as far as you could go, was kelp forest in the 10 to 20 metre [depth] zone,” Baron says. “All that area was acting as a refuge and settlement area for crayfish. It acted as a natural nursery but that has now all gone.”

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