A kelp forest off Anacapa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California (© Ian Shive/Tandem Stills + Motion)
Off Anacapa Island, California, the ocean grows its own forests. Within Channel Islands National Park—also known as the 'Galápagos of North America'—giant kelp stretches beyond 100 feet in length, forming buoyant ribbons lifted by air-filled bladders and anchored below by rootlike holdfasts.