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DIVING KELP PADDIES
Kelp paddies are best dived by live
boating, with a driver staying aboard.
Tying up to the kelp usually pulls
it apart, and anchoring or mooring
is impossible because of the water
depth (typically 1,000 to 3,000 feet).
Stay aware because fishermen looking
for pelagic gamefish also target kelp
paddies. On a few occasions I’ve seen
fishermen cast jigs at the drifting
kelp with divers in the water.
For this reason the vessel should
fly a dive flag, and the boat driver
should carefully monitor the location
of the kelp and the divers at all
times. It is also best to live boat
upwind of the divers. Weather can
change quickly, and a vessel that gets
downwind and loses power could
become a liability for a diver who has
to swim and catch up to the rapidly
disappearing vessel. With only a
speck of brown for reference against
a vast blue background, it is easy for
the boat driver to lose visual on a
kelp paddy. Taking this into account,
divers should carry a surface marker
buoy, whistle, strobe and a diver’s
emergency position indicating
radiobeacon (EPIRB) of some sort.
In recent years crews have filmed
the kelp paddy story for IMAX, BBC,
National Geographic and Silverback
Films. My most memorable filming
project of a kelp paddy was one in
which Howard Hall coordinated
our five-man crew underwater
to position a 1,400-pound IMAX
3-D camera with cable lights to
successfully film multiple Mola mola
at a cleaning station. Finding and
exploring kelp paddies takes some
time and effort, but it’s worth it to
see what lies beneath them. AD
Seagulls perch on a drifting kelp
paddy off Santa Barbara Island
during the 2015 El Niño.
Below left: Kelp paddies are
great places to find ocean
sunfish (Mola mola ).
Below right: Diving kelp paddies
can be very rewarding; you
never know what you’ll see.
Tel: +(680) 488-1062
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