Is it kelp?

It’s hard to believe that anything lives in the East River. When I jumped down onto the rocks (the bank) of the East River, I encountered a lot of styrofoam, plastic, nylon, food scraps, and a bunch of refuse that doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. But upon closer observation, I saw that life flourished in the East River! There were many small flying insects and although I did not see any fish, I can reason that the quality of the East River is not so far gone that it cannot harbor life. But one of the living things that I could recognize was “sea kelp”, large seaweeds that look like attached leaves of lettuce. The kelp were not immense in quantity but there was a good amount of kelp attached to the rocks at the bank of the East River. Sea Kelp is not grouped with aquatic  or land plants in classification, but are in either the kingdom Protista or Chromista.  Kelp likes to grow in aquatic forests mainly on the Pacific Coast, from Alaska to Canada and in shallow, cool, waters. The conditions they require for growth are usually rocky coastlines (hence seeing them on the East River), and nutrient-rich, waters that range from 42 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit. They have “anchors” that they use to grip onto rock and proceed to grow towards the water surface. The strength of the rock really determines the kelp survival and the kelp can get easily swept away with a storm or other high activity. I think that the kelp I observed were “bull kelp”, which is a species that has one main anchor supporting its many blades nearer to the surface. Bull kelp has an annual life cycle meaning its complete its cycle only once a year. It is interesting to see kelp on the bank of the East River since they do not usually extend southward past Cape Cod on the east coast of North America and are found only sporadically on the eastern tip of Long Island. Could kelp spores have been on a ship coming into the harbor and somehow made there way into the ecosystem of the East River? Seems reasonable but then it makes me question if I was observing kelp and if not, what type of brown algae was this?

Lou