First Kelp Basket of 2012

Here's the first kelp basket of the year. It's interesting because it is very very dark green- almost black. I'm not sure if it's because the kelp was on the beach during cloudy weather and was picked up before it had any "Sun- seasoning". The one brown band was a noticeably older piece of kelp. I also noticed that the kelp had a much more dramatic level of shinkage width-wise making this batch of  kelp excellent for twining.
This little basket is approx. 6x9 inches including the handle.
I think I'll learn a lot about the decompositional qualities of kelp this year!