When Alanna Kieffer talks about seaweed, it’s with a sense of stewardship, a deep care for the Oregon Coast’s intertidal rocky shores and an investment in the future of a fragile landscape.

Kieffer, a Seaside High School graduate who studied marine biology at Oregon State University, has worked at the Seaside Aquarium and as a volunteer for the Haystack Rock Awareness Program.

Now, as a tour guide, she gathers mussels and bay clams, in addition to farming Pacific dulse at Oregon Seaweed in Garibaldi. It and myriad other seaweed creations are on the menu at Winter Waters, an event series co-founded by Kieffer that grew out of a single dinner three years ago.

“The Pacific Northwest has more kelp diversity than anywhere else on the planet,” Kieffer said. “Kelp thrives in cold, nutrient-dense waters, which is what we have here.”

Bull kelp, which forms underwater forest canopies, is an annual species that can grow as fast as 1 to 2 feet per day, reaching heights of up to 100 feet in a single season.

But in November 2024, a report by the Oregon Kelp Alliance found that roughly 900 acres of Oregon’s kelp forest had disappeared since 2010, leaving only about one-third remaining.

Rising numbers of purple sea urchins appear to be one of the main causes, with conditions further impacted by marine heat waves and rising ocean temperatures.

Aaron Huang, a co-founder of OoNee Sea Urchin Ranch, based in Newport, is tackling the problem by putting urchins on the menu.

Huang is one of four guests who will join Kieffer for a panel discussion in Cannon Beach to follow a screening of the PBS documentary “Hope in the Water” on Feb. 8. As an uncertain future looms, they’re offering something more than just ocean cuisine. Winter Waters is a taste of hope.