BY: SWIKAR OLI
Being a California sea otter ain’t easy. Sea otters are among the smallest mammals in the ocean. Great whites love to eat them. They are plagued by disease, and we manage to disturb their lives in various ways. Still, our furry water weasels persevere. Thanks to successes in marine conservation attempts, each year looks more promising for the California otter to finally leave the USGS threatened species list.
Off the coast, only a couple thousand California sea otters are left. But as an upcoming documentary by PBS and BBC indicates, all hope is not lost. Strict conservation laws and the right kind of human intervention is helping. A clip of the documentary shows a scientist tending to an otter while masked, so that the otter doesn’t feel threatened or get used to having people around.
“Population growth in central California has faltered recently, so the fact that we’re seeing a slightly positive trend is a basis for cautious optimism,” said Tim Tinker, a biologist with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center.
When they’re not relaxing by the coast, the sea otter is busy bringing down the total carbon dioxide levels by 10 per cent in their inhabited area. Otters feed on sea urchins, which is beneficial because it keeps the urchins away from kelp. Sea urchins destroy as much as 30 feet of kelp forest a month, and without them the local kelp can grow over a hundred feet long, soaking up carbon emissions in the process.
Healthy kelp forests means healthy marine life too – the PBS documentary clip shows the kelp being swarmed with life of all colour. More otters means more kelp and with lower carbon dioxide levels and a thriving marine ecosystem -perhaps otters are the superheroes of the sea.
Sources: ytimg.com, seaotters.com, wikipedia.org, esa.org, blogspot.ca
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