Rebuilding Malibu must include the ocean
By Haylynn Conrad, Malibu City Council · Sat Aug 29 2026
Just a few issues ago, I wrote about why Malibu should become a Tree City USA community. The response was overwhelmingly positive. People want more trees, more nature, and a recovery that restores the living landscape around us.
This is the sister article to that one. What lives above also lives below. Yet because the ocean floor is hidden from view, we can forget that it is a living neighborhood too, home to thousands of plants and species.
While we have rightly been consumed with rebuilding people’s homes after the fires, we have overlooked the urgent need to rebuild the homes beneath the waves. We cannot take for granted what we cannot see. What lies below is every bit as important as what we see above.
When most people picture the devastation left behind by a wildfire, they imagine blackened hillsides, destroyed homes, and smoke-filled skies. In Malibu, those images are heartbreakingly familiar. Yet one of the greatest casualties of wildfire lies just beyond the shoreline, hidden beneath the waves.
The ocean has become the forgotten victim of California's wildfire crisis.
After every major fire, the first rains wash tons of ash, sediment, debris, and pollutants from burned hillsides into the Pacific. The Malibu Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit formed by local Malibu residents after the Palisades fires, is working with scientists studying the aftermath. Unfortunately, what they have found is the runoff dramatically reduced theMalibu's giant kelp forests, eelgrass beds, and fish biomass. The problem is not simply dirty water. Sediment clouds block the sunlight that kelp needs to grow, while ash and contaminants can smother rocky reefs that serve as the foundation of one of California's most productive marine ecosystems.
Kelp forests are often called the rainforests of the sea, and for good reason. They shelter hundreds of species of fish, invertebrates, seabirds, and marine mammals. They help absorb carbon, improve water quality, buffer coastlines, and sustain recreational and commercial fisheries. Lose the kelp, and an entire underwater community begins to unravel.
This is no longer a theoretical concern.
The 2018 Woolsey Fire demonstrated how profoundly wildfire can reshape Malibu's coastal waters, and the more recent Palisades Fire has raised new concerns because urban fires introduce additional contaminants, from burned plastics and household chemicals to heavy metals, that eventually make their way into the ocean. Researchers warn that these pollutants may affect marine life for years, if not decades.
For too long, post-fire recovery has ended at the beach. We rebuild homes. We stabilize hillsides. We repair roads. But the ocean, which defines Malibu's identity and economy, is too often expected to heal itself.
That approach is no longer sufficient.
Restoring Malibu's ocean ecosystem should become a regional priority. Thankfully, it is THE top priority for The Malibu Project (TMP). In partnership with Vantuna Research Group at Occidental College and The Bay Foundation, they are working on a Malibu restoration project that closely mirrors the massively successful Palos Verdes Reef Restoration Project that commenced in 2020. At the moment, this is not a government endeavor. It is a private enterprise. If anyone would like to learn more, please reach out to me and I will connect you with the people doing this work.
The Palos Verdes Reef Restoration Project is one of the largest and most closely monitored marine habitat restoration efforts ever undertaken in Southern California. It was designed to rebuild rocky reef habitat and restore kelp forest ecosystems that had been degraded over decades by pollution, sediment burial, and coastal landslides.
Engineers placed roughly 53,000 tons of quarry rock across approximately 40 acres of seafloor. The rocks were arranged into 18 high-relief reef modules immediately adjacent to surviving natural reefs.
By all scientific measures, the project has been a huge success, and meaningful regrowth has happened faster than expected. Specifically, fish biomass increased by roughly 369%, adding nearly 9 metric tons of fish to the ecosystem. Species such as rockfish, kelp bass, sheephead, and other reef-associated fishes rapidly colonized the habitat. And maybe most notably, within only 18 months, the kelp forests reestablished their colonies.
There is no reason we can’t do this in Malibu where the local marine life has been completely decimated.
As a surfer, I feel this personally. My son is a surfer too, and he will be surfing in this ocean long after I am gone. That is why we have to take care of it now. We need to restore kelp and eelgrass, rebuild habitat, and use nature to help nature come back.
The ocean has always given Malibu its identity. It attracts millions of visitors, supports local businesses, fuels recreation, and inspires artists, surfers, divers, and families alike. It deserves the same urgency and commitment we devote to rebuilding neighborhoods on land.
Recovery should not stop where the sand begins.
The next chapter of Malibu's resilience must include its underwater forests, its reefs, its wildlife, and the extraordinary ecosystem that has sustained this coastline for generations. Rebuilding Malibu means also restoring the living ocean that makes Malibu unlike anywhere else in the world.
If we truly believe in leaving a better future for the next generation, then restoring Malibu's ocean cannot be an afterthought. It must become one of California's defining environmental commitments.
Haylynn Conrad is a member of the Malibu City Council, you can reach her at hconrad@malibucity.org.