Digital images of color-infrared photographic slides of kelp canopies taken during aerial surveys in 1999 as part of the California Coastal Kelp Resources project (NCEI Accession 0002429)

Until 1989, the California state-wide coastal kelp resource had only been sporadically mapped and analyzed since an initial state-wide visual survey conducted in 1915 (Rigg 1915).

Earlier ground based estimates of kelp canopy extent have given way to modern aerial surveys, which cost effective and accurate methodology for the mapping and quantifying shore kelp resources (Jamison 1971). A substantial portion of the kelp resource habitat falls within the NOAA/National Ocean Service, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS). As part of its conservation and management mandate, the MBNMS established and conducted a kelp resource inventory program within the sanctuary-wide coastal zone in 1999 and 2000.