Sea otter awareness week

 

Sea otter awareness week

                                       Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

September 21^st- 27^th  2025

This week is organised annually by Defenders of Wildlife, Sea Otter Savvy, California Department of Parks and Recreation, the Elakha Alliance and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Places to see sea otters

                                            Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Otters (Enhydra lutris) are the largest members of the weasel family. They are intelligent, resourceful animals. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were hunted almost to extinction for their dense pelts, which were used to make exceptionally warm, luxurious clothes. There were once three hundred thousand otters in the Pacific Northwest. That number has dropped to around one hundred and fifty thousand.

 In 1911, the International Fur Seal Treaty was enacted, marking the beginning of a slow population recovery. Sixty-one years later, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 was passed, which made it  ‘illegal to hunt, harass, or kill marine mammals in U.S. waters.’

The sea otter is a keystone species, eating and controlling the population of sea urchins which might otherwise decimate the coastal kelp forests. Kelp is essential for carbon sequestration and so the otters play a significant role in balancing the delicate ecosystem.

                                    Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Sea otters have probably used tools for millions of years, this proven by the rearing of orphaned otters, who have shown an innate ability to break open shells. Frequently, otters show that they favour one rock over another, carrying it with them in a fold of skin under their arms. Sometimes, if the rock is not sufficient for the job, or has been lost, they will smash a shell against the side of a boat or other hard surface, or use a crab claw to prise it open.

Otters eat, feed their young, and sleep on their backs. They form rafts with other otters, holding paws to maintain contact and avoid drifting away. Otter cubs are unable to dive underwater until they have grown their adult coat.

Sea otters are still an endangered species. While they are no longer hunted, they require clean water. They constantly clean their coats, the millions of hairs of which trap air to keep them warm, so are susceptible to contaminants.

 
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons