Viewers can now watch a kelp forest off Anacapa Island in real time through a live underwater camera operated within Channel Islands National Park in California. The feed shows the swaying kelp and the marine animals that make their home among it, offering a window onto a habitat that most people never see.
The camera is produced by, a network that broadcasts live nature feeds from around the world. Its streams are unscripted and unedited, meaning viewers see what happens on the seafloor as it unfolds rather than a curated selection of moments. The network runs other feeds elsewhere, including sites in Kenya and Katmai in Alaska, which together give audiences a range of ecosystems to observe.
Anyone can watch the Anacapa feed live on the website. Highlights and longer documentary-style material are posted separately on the network's YouTube channels, allowing people who miss a live moment to catch up on what was recorded.
The available material does not include figures on how much of the seafloor the kelp covers or how large the animal populations are, and it does not say when the camera was installed. Those details would be needed to judge how the forest is changing over time.