Conclusions
Studies of kelp forests in Ireland are historically rare and contain mostly qualitative information. Kelp records with georeferenced data points date back to 1913 and continued over the decades, with a pulse in records from the 1990s onward. Most records are single sightings, indicating that, either people do not record multiple sightings of the same kelp forest or many regions are not revisited. Recording effort should move towards documenting kelp ecosystems (presence of a forest) as well as abundance of ‘indicator species’ within using standardised methodology. This would boost evidence that kelp forests are indicators of good environmental status and could be used operationalise MSFD legislation. Maintaining resilience of kelp forests and their associated species is important not only for the ecosystems, but the services they provide to civilisation, which can be achieved through monitoring habitats and management of stressors (Krumhansl et al., 2016). Development of a remote sensing mapping tool (via satellite or otherwise) would aid in monitoring the distribution kelp forests distributions.