Commission Reopens Ocean Rainforest Kelp Farm Permit Over Unrecovered Anchors

In 2021, the Commission conditionally approved Ocean Rainforest, Inc.'s pilot kelp farm in federal waters off Santa Barbara, on the condition that all equipment, including seafloor anchors, be fully removed once the project ended. When Ocean Rainforest decommissioned the facility in 2025, the company recovered nearly all of the gear but left two block-anchor sets behind after recovery lines broke during retrieval. Those anchors now sit on commercial fishing grounds, creating an ongoing snag hazard for trawl gear.

The Commission found this incomplete removal violated the terms of its original approval and voted to reopen Ocean Rainforest's consistency certification, since the leftover anchors created effects on fishing different from what the Commission originally reviewed, inconsistent with the Coastal Act's protection of commercial fishing. Commissioners also approved a remedial plan: Ocean Rainforest will fund a fishermen-led effort, run through the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, to recover the anchors or relocate them somewhere trawlers already avoid. If that fails, the funds go toward removing an equivalent amount of other marine debris instead. The Commission is holding $14,000 of Ocean Rainforest's surety funds until the work is done.

Reopening a previous federal consistency certification is worth flagging because it shows the Commission follows up when a consistency condition isn't fully met, even for a partial compliance gap.

Highlighting the Commission’s stellar federal consistency record is especially timely right now. The Trump administration has directed NOAA to conduct a full review of California's coastal management program, the same federal consistency authority the Commission used here to reopen this case. If that review weakens or strips California's certification, the Commission loses its ability to hold offshore projects accountable when they don't deliver on what they promised. Cases like this one are proof that the Commission’s federal consistency authority leads to important ocean protection outcomes, and why it's worth defending.