Abstract
The 1990 results of the Channel Islands National Park Kelp Forest Monitoring Project are described in this report. Sixty-eight species of algae, fish , and invertebrates were monitored annually at 16 permanent sites around the five islands within the park. Survey techniques utilized SCUBA and surface-supplied-air, and included quadrats, band transects, random point contacts, size frequencies, fish and video transects, photogrammetric plots, size frequency measurements, and species list surveys. In 1990, eight sites had healthy kelp forests, while three others had remnants or signs of a developing forest, though dominated by purple sea urchins. Four sites were dominated by purple sea urchins and one was dominated by red sea urchins. Four sites had high to moderate densities of white sea urchins, but two of those had dense kelp forests over most of the transect.