Brookings, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College Curry Campus invites the community to join us on Thursday, April 9, 2026, 1:00 to 2:00 pm for “ORKA in Action: Restoring Oregon’s Kelp Forests.” This is a free program sponsored by the Friends of Curry Campus and will be held in the Community Room on Southwestern’s Curry Campus, 96082 Lone Ranch Parkway (off Highway 101), Brookings. Bring a friend and a brown bag lunch.
In the waters along Oregon’s southern coast, a quiet ecological emergency is unfolding beneath the waves. According to the 2024 Oregon Kelp Forest Status Report, Oregon lost approximately 70% of its kelp forests between 2010 and 2022 — a collapse driven by exploding purple sea urchin populations, ocean warming, and the loss of natural predators. Bull kelp forests that once stretched for miles, sheltering rockfish, feeding gray whales, and anchoring coastal food webs, have largely vanished from reefs where they thrived just a decade ago. The effects reach from the ocean floor to your dinner plate: the wild fish, Dungeness crab, and sea urchins that define Oregon’s coastal economy all depend on healthy kelp ecosystems. If you care about Oregon’s coast, this crisis demands attention.
The Oregon Kelp Alliance (ORKA) is responding with urgency and purpose. Funded through NOAA Fisheries’ Restoration Center, ORKA’s Oregon Kelp Forest Stewardship Initiative has already removed more than 330,000 purple sea urchins from targeted restoration sites and successfully outplanted bull kelp at two of six coastal reefs, including Macklyn Cove here in Brookings — returning life to underwater habitats that had gone dark. Commercial divers, marine scientists, and tribal community partners are working side by side to make this happen. ORKA is also developing restorative kelp mariculture — cultivation of kelp for both habitat recovery and economic opportunity — with support from the Builders Initiative. This dual approach reflects a core belief: that thriving oceans and thriving coastal communities are mutually beneficial goals.
Carolyn McKinnon, the Urchin Control and Dive Safety Coordinator for ORKA will be the presenter for this lecture. ORKA unites diverse stakeholders passionate about kelp forest ecosystems, including commercial urchin divers, marine scientists, resource managers, tribal communities, tour operators, recreational divers, students, culinary professionals, and coastal residents. Carolyn holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from Dalhousie University, with her current work focusing on coordinating volunteer and commercial divers to achieve ORKA’s restoration goals while promoting diver safety. In her free time she enjoys exploring the beautiful coastal hikes, beaches, and communities around Port Orford.
Come join us for this exciting presentation about the ocean in our own backyard.
Stay tuned for upcoming talks in our speaker series. For more information contact the Curry Campus at 541-813-1667.
